Gibson and Richards Really are Bigots

The entertainment news this week focused on Michael Richards’ use of the word “nigger” to put down black hecklers in a Los Angeles nightclub. A few months ago, a drunk Mel Gibson grabbed headlines for claimed that the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Both men have apologized and stated that they aren’t bigots. That’s not true; only a racist uses that word, and only an anti-Semite says Jews cause all the trouble.

At one level, there isn’t a person on the planet who isn’t racist. Ethnic differences are part of what creates personal identity and being conscious of those differences is part of what humans are. However, it is one thing to be race-conscious in the sense of acknowledging ethnic differences and quite another to determine, contrary to facts, that members of one group are lesser humans than those of another.

This is where the words come into play. There is no more hate-filled word in the English language than “nigger.” Among the lily-livered politically correct, it has been replaced by “the n-word.” In doing this, people soften the sheer awfulness of the term. It shouldn't be softened. And when young black men use the term among themselves, even spelling it “nigga,” they are merely perpetuating the word used to deny the humanity of their ancestors.

Beyond the words is the racism that ascribes to a given group certain traits, the laziness of some, the thievery of others, the lax morals of still others. Into this class falls Mr. Gibson’s tirade. Throughout history, the Jews have been classed as devious, money-grubbing and perpetrators of conspiracies. Perhaps such defamation is the result of surviving for 6,000 years in one of the world’s toughest neighborhoods. It remains, nonetheless, untrue.

So, regardless of the apologies, regardless of the appearances on talk shows, regardless of the role of drugs, when a person engages in racist speech or acts, it gives away what goes on in that person’s mind. Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite and Michael Richards is a racist. If it quacks like a duck . . . .

It is a shame that these two have decided to hate people for their membership in a given ethnic group. Both are clever and creative human beings who probably could have found a plausible reason for hating members of these groups as individuals. The only thing that is worse than the hatred of racism is the intellectual laziness of it.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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