Richards' Racially-Charged Rage

I never watch the David Letterman show and I've seen all of about twenty minutes of the old Seinfeld sitcom. But like most of America, I suppose, I had seen the clip of Seinfeld cast member Michael Richards's profane, racist diatribe during a recent performance at a comedy club and learned that he was to appear on Letterman's show last night. So, I tuned in.

"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards proclaimed with intense emotion during a satellite-link interview Letterman conducted, Jerry Seinfeld at his side.

If Richards isn't a person of racist attitudes, how to explain the racism he expressed or the venom in his words as he wandered the club stage, catlike, for what seemed like an interminable time? Is he simply an angry man who grasped at the most apparent tool, the only thing he really knew about them--their race--to bludgeon two hecklers? Or is he a racist--perhaps one who's never realized it about himself--smoked out by his inexplicable anger?

As the Washington Post notes in its account of Richards' appearance on Letterman:

Richards described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood.

That's when the laughter stopped.

Richards has apologized and that's to his credit. Seinfeld said that Richards was a person he loved and that Richards was "shattered" by the incident.

Obviously, I believe in the efficacy of apologies and in forgiveness for the repentant. But I wonder if people will ever be able to look at Michael Richards the same way again.

God is able to forgive and forget. That's harder for we human beings.

[THANKS TO: Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice for linking to this post.]