‘Seinfeld’ Actor Michael Richards Nearly 18 Years After His Racist Outburst: “I’m Not Racist.”
It’s been nearly 18 years since Michael Richards, best known for playing Kramer in Seinfeld, had a very controversial outburst that basically cost him his career. He has been out of the spotlight since then, but the actor has recently appeared at the premiere of his colleague’s movie Unfrosted, which was not that well received by either the critics or the audiences, but Richards came to support Jerry Seinfeld. This was a rare public appearance by the former star and, of course, the media used the opportunity to talk to the actor, especially about the 2006 incident.
The incident we are talking about, if you don’t remember, happened during a stand-up show in Los Angeles, when some Black members of the audience supposedly reacted in a way that Richards did not like. The actor then had an aggressive and highly controversial outburst, saying the following:
Shut up! Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f—— fork up your a–. You can talk, you can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now mother——. Throw his a– out. He’s a n—–!
This is just the introduction to Richards’ outburst, which lasted for about three minutes and shocked the audience. The video is available on YouTube, if you want to see it for yourselves. It was absolutely horrific to hear this back then and it is horrific still, so there is absolutely no way to make Richards’ behavior acceptable. He was supposedly interrupted, something that often happens during live shows and stand-up routines, but to react like he did is unacceptable. There is no situation in which such behavior is acceptable, which is why Richards basically destroyed his career then and there.
Since then, the actor has been removed from the public eye, and professional opportunities have disappeared. His appearance at the premiere led the media to ask him to clarify what happened back in 2006, and here is how the actor explained it in an interview with People magazine:
I was immediately sorry the moment I said it onstage. I’m not looking for a comeback. I’m not racist. I have nothing against Black people. The man who told me I wasn’t funny had just said what I’d been saying to myself for a while. I felt put down. I wanted to put him down. My anger was all over the place and it came through hard and fast. Anger is quite a force. But it happened. Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn’t been easy. Crisis managers wanted me to do damage control. But as far as I was concerned, the damage was inside of me. I said no to the offer of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I didn’t feel deserving. I said no to hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ twice because I didn’t feel good enough. I was never really satisfied with my ‘Seinfeld’ performance. Fame magnified my insecurities.
Source: People
Whether or not you will believe Richards is a matter for you to decide, but we on Fiction Horizon have to reiterate once again that such behavior is unacceptable under any circumstances and that there is no justifying such aggression and racial slur, regardless of the situation.
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