The whole incident is straight from the department of shattered illusions…

I’ve been doing my best to try and justify Mr. Richards’ actions, at least enough that I feel comfortable enough to enjoy Seinfeld reruns, but have floundered completely. Even if the heckles that preceded the meltdown had been entirely racial in nature and the hecklers had been loudly congratulating themselves on the superiority of their blackness, there is still nothing that would come close to a reasonable explanation.

He wasn’t making a joke, he wasn’t cruelly exaggerating the heckler’s own proud boasts, it was just some of his darkest thoughts escaping in darts of rage. And indeed, the weaseliest moment of the whole tape is when he starts acting as if he were using the words purely to demonstrate that it is wrong to keep certain words taboo.

Ironic then, the fact that he brought to the open air an undercurrent of racist thought that is rarely discussed. We should, for sure, acknowledge the fact that many people have private thoughts they would never discuss openly. And whilst we should value our self control in keeping our worst impulses to ourselves, we can take this glimpse as a stark lesson in why (racist) anger can be so destructive in itself, how vulnerable it makes us and just how much damage it causes to others.

A fact completely lost on those who have taken this opportunity to espouse the belief that “Blacks have been allowed to get away with being that racist for years”.

I know for sure next time I have the urge to shoot my mouth off at someone, I have a new image to help me think twice. Must look for the best in people. Must look for the best in people.

Michael Richards will have spent the last three days getting to know himself all over again, as someone who has hurt innocent bystanders and close friends in equal measure. Just a plain pity.