damn. he went mel gibson on the crowd. yeah, he's headed for betty ford....

You don't think Richards is trying to pull an Andy Kaufman?

I saw some anecdote about 6 months back on a message board about a guy who had a run-in with Richards and described him as racist.

I took it with a grain of salt, as you do with pretty much any anecdote on any message board. Obviously, sounds a bit more realistic now.

I couldn't see the video that well, I'm guessing it was a cell phone or something that caught that, but clearly he has some issues, and I'm not sure he can blame it on substance abuse, he may just be a bad man...

*sigh*. This is great. But it's 4am and I don't have a lot of time, so I'll summarize.

The word "cracker" is derogatory. But it's origins alone imply that's it's no where near as derogatory as 'nigger'.

If black people had, for example, taken white people from Europe;

Chained and whipped them, brought them to Africa packed on boats; (throwing the ill ones over board);

Enlightened the world on the 'scientific evidence' of the stupidity, laziness, drunken and lavicious nature of whites;

Justified the extra crude treatment of whites using the bibles "Hametic curse";

Lynched, cut the fingers off white civilians, burned white peaceble churches;

Hung white men for them being white;

Poured hot tar on naked white women and children as punishment;

Demoralized, degraded, and for decades told the listening (and believing) world that whites were subhuman and simian (ape-like), all whilst calling them crackers, THEN cracker would be the same as 'Nigger'.

Now that i've gotten that out of the way. Michael Richards wasn't wrong.

They wanted to ridicule him; he ridiculed back. And they couldn't take it.

Why are they crying about it? Yes, I know the word hurts you, black audience member. It has an offense and violent history, and i'm not saying it's okay. But why start in the first place?

'You got served'.

And yes, i'm black.

How about people in the audience learn to shut the fuck up and respect the performer.
Blacks who are jumping on this as racism are crybabies who try to make white people feel guilty and most likely complain about whites as well.

Michael Richards is funny as fuck. It�s sad he bowed to the pressure of bringing in �Reverend� Jesse Jackson a guy who can�t keep his dick in his pants & has kids outside of marriage.

It�s rare to find a black person who is aware that he was telling a heckler to shut the fuck up. Any black comedian who goes on & on about how uncool crackers or honkies are & no one even notices or says a thing.

It makes me think some blacks are going too far & that America is the land of political correctness bullshit.

Richards called a black person a nigger and received hell for it. Yet, not one thing was mentioned about the black person calling Richards a cracker in return. Black people call themselves niggers or excuse me, Nigga. They want a superior right to be able to say what they want but can't handle it when they themselves keep their racial stereotypes flourishing.

Kramer definitely over reacted but Americans are so hung up on political correctness that they ALways forget the human element,( remember the prohibition! ). Kramer is Jewish and I think his people have suffered as much if not more than the blacks. We are all human beings and we have the right to insult each other once in a while without making a big deal. I grew up in France of a French mother and and IRISH american father, I am and was the least racist person on this planet. I ended up in the US Army and was treated like dirt by blacks because I was kind and gentle