Michael Richards and Kramer

If we're honest, we can find Michael Richards in all of us
Jane Ahlin, The Forum

Published Sunday, December 03, 2006

Jane Ahlin teaches English as an adjunct faculty member at MSUM. A former commentator for KDSU (ND Public Radio), she has written for The Forum opinion pages since 1989. Her column appears Sundays in The Forum.

That Michael Richards decided to apologize to Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson for his racist tirade against hecklers at a comedy club says it all: Richards is desperate. The comedian, who formerly played the off-the-wall, much-loved character Kramer on the sitcom "Seinfeld," made himself a performance pariah with his ugly outburst a few weeks back. After an initial mea culpa on "Late Night with David Letterman" (which included an apology to "Afro-Americans" as if the 1960s never ended), Richards figured out he still was in deep doo.

Oh my, oh my.

To his credit, Richards didn't blame his racist remarks on booze and mimic Mel Gibson, who famously went straight into treatment for anti-Semitic-alcoholism after his debacle with police during a traffic stop. Also, showing increasing recognition of America's collective scorn for his hate speech, not to mention showing willingness to pay big bucks to be redeemed, Richards hired a top-notch publicist. (When it comes to celebrities, that's the ultimate American S.O.S.)

However, his next big move was to apologize to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, which made his desire for rehabilitation in the public eye look pathetic. Sharpton and Jackson have followers, but the general public sees them as self-important blowhards, not unlike their political counterparts in the evangelical movement, Rev. Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell. Outside their circles of true believers, they have become little more than caricatures whose role in public discourse never rivals their capacity for self-promotion.

The truth is, Richards has a long way to go on the road back to public affection. Unlike in days gone by, Americans know overt racism, sexism and anti-Semitism when we see it and hear it. And we no longer put up with it. In fact we are quick to ridicule celebrities, such as Gibson and Richards, and politicians, such as Sen. George "mucaca" Allen, R-Va., who spout bigotry. Compared to the America of 50 or 60 years ago, we have come a long way. Unfortunately, there's a rub: Bigotry that is overt is only one well-defined corner of a subtler, blurrier picture, the top layer of At the time the Richards story hit the news, my husband and I were staying in an upscale California hotel owned by an Indian tribe for a meeting he was attending, and that morning we were in the workout room. There were only three other people working out: two Caucasian men and one American Indian man. When I looked at the white guys, workout thoughts came to mind: one was fit; the other looked as if he might stroke out any moment.

However, my first thought on seeing the Indian was that he must be a member of the tribe who owned the hotel. As soon as that thought registered, another followed: Why did I automatically assume that? Frankly, I was appalled at myself. Did I think that an American Indian couldn't be attending the same meeting my husband was attending? Did I think that he couldn't be staying at that hotel on business or pleasure unrelated to his ethnicity? Yes, I recognized immediately my thought was prejudiced, but the fact remains that it was my first thought.

So here is a cautionary note: For all of our progress, we carry the baggage of inequality from generations past. We don't want to and we don't mean to, but prejudice does not have to be intentional to be real. And the only way to take that burden from future generations is for us to be vigilant about every American's civil rights under the law.

That's why a case to come before the Supreme Court next week should give us pause. Citing racial discrimination, lawsuits that began in Seattle and Louisville will ask the court to deny school districts the right to have voluntary plans that promote integration. As we watch the case, we also should note statistics from the Harvard Civil Rights Project that show American public schools to be less integrated today than they were in 1970. Unlike the sick tirades of a few celebrities, that's cause for alarm.