Michael Richards and the Surprise Factor
Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) blew it. He admits it, and it's true. In response to heckling at a comedy club, he launched into a racist tyrade that included the "N" word, resulting in the club having to refund everyone's money, including what they paid for drinks. Since that time, Michael's been making the TV circuit, apologizing and offering restitution.
Everyone who knows him says he's a nice guy, absolutely not prone to this kind of thing. Michael says the same thing, telling the world how shocked and surprised he is that those words came out of his mouth. And I believe them. This was utterly out of character, a horrible glitch in an otherwise pretty good life.
Except that there may be another explanation, one that asks us to go down a road we resist exploring. Question: Who among us, even those of us who are gentle souls, has not at some point exploded in anger and said things we never dreamed we would say? Further question: Where did all that nasty stuff come from? The answer I would like to suggest is not an easy one to hear - It comes from the dark place that lurks in all of us. It comes from a true self, a more honest self than the personna we raise to the outside world.
An ancient person in an ancient book with ancient wisdom put it this way:
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' " (Mark 7:14-15)
The famous novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde illustrated it perfectly. The two men were one man, except that a drug released Mr. Hyde (an evil and nasty character) from Dr. Jekyll's personna. The facade of the good doctor was torn away so that we could see the Hyde within.
The darkness is there. It shocks and surprises us when it emerges, but it shouldn't. The solution is what this blog is all about. It can't be found in self-help. The darkness needs to be cleansed by the blood of the very one who told us about it.
posted by William Badke @ 7:33 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Your comment reminds me of that chapter from Mere Christianity about Rats in the Cellar. What comes out of us when we're caught off guard is who we really are. We like to say we were tired or not at our best, but what comes out when we don't have time to put on the mask is the reality. I agree that the key is to get to the root of who we are and allow God to go to work there. I have plenty of Rats in my cellar if I'm honest enough to look closely!
Of course it's also possible Michael Richards was just really P'O'd at those Black hecklers (for interupoting and saying he wasn't funny, etc) and lashed out at them in a way he knew would get them angry.
It's like when friends or brothers & sisters get REALLY angry at each other and, while screaming at each other, will yell the most personal hurtful things they can think of to get a 'rise' out of them.
So just because Kramer said racist things to them doesn't mean he is a racist - I'm not a racist either, but I'd know what to say if I want to get a Black person angry (or anyone for that matter). It's not difficult to figure out, it's just that it's the wrong thing to do.
Besides, I read the article on the Electronic News Network tonight ("Michael Richards LIKES Black People") that pretty much proves he isn't a racist - for instance, he was the only white celebrity one photo agency had a picture of back a couple years when he attended a Black Comedy Jam type party (everyone else photographed was black). :)
Fyi it's here if you want to see the other points in the article:
celebs.electronicnewsnetwork.com/michael-richards/
So we should give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to a stupid mistake, in my opinion.
To blogger girl:
That might work if he had avoided the N word. The challenge is that, given that he was angry, he didn't face them as people but as a race. Even MR admits that he crossed a line from angry response to something far nastier. Where did it come from?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trashing Michael Richards. I'm getting at the reality that all of us are Michael Richards. brad harback has caught the essence with the rats in the cellar analogy. We don't do ourselves any favours if we put the bad things we do against character down to a simple mistake. The mistake came from somewhere.
Post a Comment
<< Home