Words mean things

I wasn’t going to say anything about Michael Richards’ obsenity-laden and n-word-ridden tirade the other night. But then I read this perceptive post from Bob Rixon’s The Rix Mix blog and just wanted to pass it along. Read it and consider not only Michael Richards, but Mel Gibson and all those other celebrities that allow their bigotries to spew out. He says the n-word is (bold-facing is mine)

both an awful word & a lazy word. It rarely fails to bring to my mind terrible images. Everyone in my family used it; only in the house, of course – we were raised to have good manners even toward “negroes.” It’s a word I quietly retired from my active spoken vocabulary in high school, which I recall as one of the first times I consciously reasoned with myself about language. I could avoid the word & still be racist, but could never use the word & not be a racist.

Fear charges prejudice, so I wonder what an experienced comic like Michael Richards feared when a couple of hecklers interrupted his act. He’s an edgy, improvisional comedian, but after so many years in show business, you’d think he’d have a stock of responses ranging from bemused to aggressive but funny putdowns. What made that ugly brew bubble up & then boil over?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet