Kramer versus Kramer

Michael Richards, who played the character of Cosmo Kramer in the 1990's hit television ensemble comedy "Seinfeld" is no longer welcome at The Laugh Factory, where last Friday night he went through a complete meltdown that was described by one witness as akin to a nervous breakdown. He lashed out at a patron of the club who had been talking through his act. When Richards complained, the patron told him his friend did not think he was funny. What happened next certainly was not. Richards launched into a tirade that included a reference to past race based lynchings and repeated angrily shouted racial slurs.

Richards had promised the proprieters of the club that he would apologize the following night, but during his appearrance, he failed to do so. As a result, the club on it's web-site released this statement, which is temporarily on the homepage.

He has been roundly denounced by the media, including several fellow comedians, such as Michael Rodriquez, who habitually refers to Anglos as "gringos", and by assorted other black comedians who casually address whites as rednecks and crackers. All in good fun, of course. (Snark Alert).

One comedian who leapt to Richards defense was former co-star Jerry Seinfeld, who arranged an on air apology from Richards on the David letterman Show. Some have opined that this appearrance was a desperate attempt to protect the integrity of the Seinfeld franchise, as this show was through the majority of it's ten year run on NBC in the top ten, and was number one for the night of it's series finale in 1998. It is still a hit in syndication.

However, the real life Kenny Kramer, the personage on whom the character of Cosmo Kramer was based, was not happy and openly and roundly denounced Richards. It has even been sugested that the real Kramer might even sue Richards for endangering the "Kramer" franchise. In fact, Mr. Kramer has made a living off the role, capitalizing off it to the point that he demanded, and received, a monetary settlement from NBC for the use of the characters last name. He has parlayed this into a bus tour of the area of New York that is represented by the series, including the now famous restaurant run by the "soup nazi". Among other such endeavors, he now operates this website.

You have to love these people. Well, I do, because it proves the point I've been making for years, and will always believe, which is, racism is an inherit aspect of the human condition. It can be hidden, or disguised, for so long, but under the right circumstances, it will emerge. Maybe not to such a profound degree as in this remarkable instance, but it is there nonetheless.

Nor does it have to be taught. Yes, I am aware that a young child does not have a racist bone in his body. But just wait until puberty sets in, at which point, upon becomming more adult, more independent, and more agressive-and with more demands for resposnibility and acountability-people naturally tend to form alliances, and they naturally in doing so become attracted to those they most identify with. And nothing serves as a more solidly identifying characteristic than race. Because it is more than just appearrances, it is an outer reflection of, to an extent, what we are, and more importantly, what we perceive ourselves to be.

In other words, it is not racism that has to be taught, but just the oppossite. To use another example, I know intellectually that a womans worth is not to be determined by physical beauty. But that doesn't prevent men, and especially teenage boys, from being sexually attracted to certain feminine physical types. That is just the way it is. To try to pretend otherwise is not only unrealistic, it is quite frankly irresponsible.

The reason that men are more attracted to certain types of women, and women to certain types of men, has something to do with some innate drive to strengthen the human species, which frankly manifests as desire and even lust for the person who adroitly portrays the qualities that triggers this mechanism.

Along the same lines, this drive to survive and excel will lead races to naturally congregate with others of their own race. This was a phenomenon that manifested most vividly in the more ancient times, true, but it has never gone away. It has just become more civilized. Although it is taught as taboo, it is still there. And it will probably take one or two more millenium, at least, before it is completely eradicated, and when this comes about, it wil be due to passing through that appropriate evolutionary stage. It will not come about through "education".

In fact, by teaching the opposite of human nature as science fact, the proponents of racial tolerance are in fact achieving the oppossite of what they intend. They are encouraging people to deny their base human natures, out of the vain hopes that it will go away. As though countless millenia of evolutionary human nature can be vanquished in a matter of decades by a few courses of sensitivity training.

What happenned to Michael Richards is not that difficult to understand, viewed in context. Here is a man who has had nothing substantial in the way of creative opportunities since the closing of Seinfeld. He was passed over for the role of "Monk" - a role that was actually created for him - for actor Tony Shalhoub, on the grounds that he would not be accepted by audiences in the role. The series went on to become a breakaway hit for the USA Network.

He was given a series called "The Michael Richards Show", which was tailored for him as well, but network executives demanded the show be made into a more conventional situation comedy. It didn't even last a complete season.

Who knows how long he has been sufferring from depression and anxiety, how long he has tried to repress his feelings of worthlessness and anger, not only over these circumstances, but in other areas of his life throughout the entirety of it? Comedians, are after all masters of sublimation, and many have lived tumultous lives of neglect and abuse. In so many cases, this provides the fuel for their comedy which provides an acceptable outlet for their pain. But sometimes, that pain comes to the surface.

What happenned at the Laugh facotry can be summed up quite succinctly. Richards was in emotional pain, and was assaulted by a patron in a manner that hurt him the most. Richards lost it, and he lashed out, against this person whom he did not really know, in such a way that was subconscously geared to hurt him back, in the only way he could do against an unknown adversary.

I am not excusing it. I am trying to understand it, and explain it in the manner which in my opinion provides the most rational view. I know that I am in the minority viewpoint on this, and that most will insist that racism and prejudice is not natural. Well, you can deny it all you want. But until the matter is dealt with and seen clearly for what it is-a natural phenomen of the human evolutionary cycle - then it can not begin to be understood, or dealt with adequately, and thus the problem will never get any better than what it is now. Shame, and denial, will not make it go away.

Oh, by the way, in conclusion-Michael Richards did not cause this controversy by calling a black patron "The N Word"-

He called him a "Fucking Nigger".

Just sayin'.