is it wrong to be proud of who you are?
In November, Michael Richards (best known as Kramer on Seinfeld) launched into a racist tirade during a stand up act at a comedy club, insulting patrons and mouthing off at 2 black hecklers.
After an attempt by 4 of the patrons and a handful of Black activists, including a former supreme court judge and 2 lawyers to get Richards to attend a “mock” trial, Richards defended himself by questioning racism and had the following to say.
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans.
You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You Call me ‘White boy,’ ‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’ ‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman’ … and that’s OK.
But when I call you, N!gger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-n!gger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink …
You call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP. You have BET. If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we’d be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.
If we had White History Month , we’d be racists.
If we had any organi za tion for only whites to ‘advance’ OUR lives we’d be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?
A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships you know we’d be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US . Yet if there were ‘White colleges’ THAT would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.
You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.
I am proud.
But you call me a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists?
I agree with you that there is a double standard. I also agree that the mysterious “it’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand” really does apply. I am not black and I don’t understand.
I had a very interesting and engaging conversation with a friend (who is black) and he told me quite plainly that he doesn’t see the problem with “two wrongs making a right”. He justified this by stating that because I am a white guy I wouldn’t understand.
And as much as it galls me, he was right. I will never be able to understand how a black person feels in a society which has been historically controlled by whites.
But that’s not the end of the story. After our incredibly interesting, revealing and thought provoking conversation I agreed with him and then I asked him to explain it to me. And you know what?
He couldn’t.
Which led me to believe that he was just being a lazy, bigoted, racist. And I have a hard time giving credence to his opinion because of this.
We are no longer friends.
Niggers are stupid they haven’t evolved from the monkey ages…forgive them!
Yeah, I live in South Africa, where the attitude is EXACTLY the same.
I am white and if I do so much as to say I’m proud of it, then I’m a “nazi” and a “racist” but most cabinet ministers here are a bunch of black bigoted racists.
Surprising as it may sound, black people are the biggest racists and bigots in the world.
I posted this as a comment on my myspace and one of my now ex-friends got extremely offended by it. I was like “whatever, keep playing the race card thats why you don’t have many friends”
I still love this no matter what anyone thinks because its very true!
Um, Michael Richards didn’t say that. I don’t know who originally did but it’s a stock essay and has been floating around the internet for a long time. See here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/proudwhite.asp
I’m white myself but this essay is crap. When you’re a minority group that has been persecuted, you live under different rules. If I call a black person a nigger, I’m bringing up the hatred, slavery, and incredible prejudice of three centuries. If they call me a cracker, they’re calling me…uh…white. Ouch. They SHOULDN’T do it, by the way–it IS racist–but that doesn’t mean that “kike”, “chink”, “nigger”, and “cracker” all have the same sort of damage attached to them.
Oh, and BET exists because almost every other channel is “WET”. Black people have a unique culture that isn’t generally reflected by most movies and TV shows.
Black History Month and black pride events exist to celebrate the success of a race of people who, after three hundred years of oppression, are starting to come to something resembling success. It is not a “black people are superior” party.
Some individuals are just desperate to be victims, and people who insist on bringing up the old “how come they can say whitey but i can’t say nigger? whine whine whine!! etc! etc!” are the biggest babies of all.
Crista, what if I told you that the author was black, would your opinion differ? The essay was good and it had some meaning, but it was meant to sway you. Unless you are informed like Canaduck or if you were an active black (or Mexican American, Asian American, Arab American, etc) advocate, you would understand the meaning beneath those organizations. In my book, you have to love (know) someone in order to hate them. Put your passion into something else. You want to get a rise out of people? Do an experiment like the author did. Post on your myspace comments of black power! Then see what your friends say.
In Canada, for historical reasons, we have a very small black population. Correspondingly, blacks are largely off our radar in terms of racism. (In our country, you are defined by speaking English OR French; colour is a secondary thing.) Nevertheless, whenever the TV news shows people charged with murder, gang violence, drug-related crime, etc., almost without exception they are black.
When they are convicted for their crimes, frequently, the race card is played by their family and friends, “they wouldn’t have been found guilty if they were white.” What bullshit! If you are a criminal the colour of your skin doesn’t matter – you are a criminal. It’s that simple. What I cannot grasp is why we see so many blacks who have chosen to be violent criminals!