Seinfeld's Michael Richards: A Case of Liberal Guilt Exhaustion
By Gary Krasner (12/02/06)
I don't believe Michael Richards is a racist. He grew up with blacks. His
childhood friends were black. No, when a Hollywood liberal of all
people---one who never showed hostility to blacks before---suddenly
explodes shouting racial epithets, you probably have an example of what I
call "Liberal Guilt Exhaustion".
In order to understand why he exploded at those black folks at the comedy
club, one should read Shelby Steele's, White Guilt: How Blacks and
Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. He also
expanded his thesis on white guilt to liberal attitudes on foreign policy,
in his May 2006 Wall Street Journal op-ed, White Guilt and the Western
Past: Why is America so delicate with the enemy?
(http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008318)
According to Shelby Steele, white liberals are guilty about white racism
(which they perceive as rampant now as it was 50 years ago!), slavery, Jim
Crow laws, etc.----none of which they are responsible for. Yet they have
taken it upon themselves to shoulder all that guilt. This leads them to
behave differently with blacks than with whites. They are overly
deferential to blacks. They bend over backwards not to offend---though
often it's expressed as unintentional condescension. That condescension is
expressed in their political support for reverse racial
discrimination---also known as preferences, quotas, and affirmative action.
Let's call it political correctness for short.
Anyway, over time, the strain on the ego for these white liberals builds.
On the surface, they maintain their political correctness. But
subconsciously, there's resentment that they cannot deal with blacks on a
truly equal basis---like they would with anyone else. If they have a black
acquaintance who's an absolute knucklehead, they constrain themselves from
criticizing him, or at least offering a little constructive criticism.
They don't want to appear racist at any cost.
There's also another dynamic occurring: White liberals are not getting any
credit for carrying this burden of guilt, nor for the splendid behavior
they exhibit with black people. They don't receive any appreciation from
blacks, and certainly not from conservatives---who really beat up on
them for their pretentious, self-indulgent exercise in self-righteously
applying double-standards.
This pressure builds, and sometimes there's a triggering event which causes
some white liberals to release this pent-up resentment and anger. I call
this release the Meltdown Phase. Meltdown may occur over a period time,
whereupon white liberals will have time to adjust. There are two forms of
adjustment: One type enables them to make appropriate social
accommodations, such as revealing to friends their amended political
philosophy---one which sheds to some degree the political correctness they
once embraced with regards to race. The other type of adjustment is their
reconciliation of their formerly ideal self-image, to the new reality. To
wit, for the first time, they're ready to show their true face to everyone.
Talk to any gay person once out of the closet. There's trepidation, to be
sure. But there's also relief. The relief one feels in finally being able
to act naturally and in accord with one's true feelings and attitudes.
When Meltdown occurs suddenly, as it did with Michael Richards, it can be
ugly. Most white liberals who experience the Meltdown are not subjected to
adverse social consequences. Unless they're famous. Then they find
themselves in the sorry position of Richards.
One must feel sorry for him. Admittedly, he's mostly responsible for
indulging in his own white liberal guilt trip. All white liberals impose
it on themselves. And they feel their altruism justifies a superior
attitude, and to call conservatives racists. Yet what Richards is being
subjected to is cruel. He doesn't even understand what's happening to him.
He doesn't have a clue why he exploded with rage that night.
He was suffering from Liberal Guilt Exhaustion. Like all stand up comics,
he spent weeks writing his material and practicing his delivery. On this
particular night, some black people in the audience may have been too loud,
or perhaps they heckled him. It doesn't matter which. Because Richards'
overreaction was inexcusable. This article in not an excuse for his
behavior. It's an explanation of why he may have reacted so violently and
ugly. Those blacks in the audience were just in the wrong place at the
wrong time---when a guilty white liberal had had enough and experienced his
Meltdown.
To add insult to his own injury, Richards has had to apologize to everyone
in the nation, and plead for forgiveness from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson
no less (that's the test of a true liberal!). But why? Was it his video
that's been circulating everywhere? Was he profiting from it? Now
feminist attorney Gloria Allred is demanding that Richards monetarily
compensate the black people in the audience whom he insulted. And of
course his career in show business has ended.
There's irony to all this. Richards' friends in the liberal news media are
attacking him. His liberal friends in show business have abandoned him.
The black race hustlers are seeking their pound of flesh. Parasitic
personal injury lawyers are circling his corpse. He doesn't have a liberal
friend left.
But in the words of King, he's free at last.
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