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November 20, 2006
I'm not a bigot, I'm just opinionated
Seems to me that the pendulum has swung back the other way. People no longer want to be told that they cannot say things about any particular group of people any longer. Being politically correct is a bad thing. Sometimes, when their thoughts are pent up enough, they come out in strange ways.
Take Michael "Kramer" Richards. After being heckled by some black men, he apparently lost his mind. Maybe if he had been allowed to regularly and publicly express his views on, or rather, against black people, this incident may not have taken place the way it did. I don't know. I get the feeling, though, that there are waaaay more Michael Richards' out there than we might like to think.
It's a fairly old argument now. People used to feel free to talk shit about anyone until those people started talking back and demanding changes. Having gone unchallenged before, the bigots and fools suddently found themselves with no leg to stand on. Political correctness arrived, and with it, a lot of good things. There was a certain level of respect for minorities that had never been seen, and those minorities will not soon let that go, even in the light of bad things done by their communities. (The white majority is not judged the same way, but that is another discussion.) But then bigots themselves felt wronged and stifled. They see problems in their communities and in the world and need someone to blame, and believe that their voices are not being heard. (By the way, I love the way that some bigots defend what they say by saying, "but he IS black" or "but he IS a nigger" or "but niggers ARE worthless humans that have freedom solely because we say they do". Way to go, asshole. The Nazi Party wants you.) Michael Richards may be one person that is sick of it, and wants to say what's on his mind. If he were, he wouldn't be the only one.
I am not saying that this trend, if you want to call it that, is a good one. It would be nice if the pendulum alternating between sickening political correctness and racist lynching would just stop swinging, and that we could speak intelligently, but sadly, we as a society are not that bright. Right now it appears that bigots can spew their garbage and fall behind the mask of simply "expressing obvious truths that others don't want to see", or "just being opinionated". Richards apologized for his outburst, but I am sure that people are going to be defending him for doing what he did. In fact, there will be more and more support for this type of thing, especially due to the seemingly never-ending crisis in the Middle East that is spreading its way across the world.
In any case, I hope that this type of thing gets nipped in the bud, but you and I both know that that won't likely occur.
Posted by JonasParker at November 20, 2006 3:29 PM
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