Comments on: Is he a racist? https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293 2002-2015 Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:21:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.2 By: Philipp Lenssen https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15105 Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:21:19 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15105 For some context, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdhkUtx0LHM

… and see Google News for [laugh factory], [richards letterman] etc. (I had to research too being outside the US).

Hard to judge what happened here though even with above video, ’cause you can’t see what performance he started with. The possibilities without knowing more context seem to range from “badly delivered but non-racist ‘racist guy’ routine” to “plain racist comedian”. E.g. Sacha Baron Cohen aka Borat also has a racist/ sexist impression routine but he does it very well — this is the heart of satire. Another example of “racist guy” satire is, for example, Douglas Hofstadter’s http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.html — or take a look at the song of prejudices by Sarah Silverman http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2415875145808534146 . It seems that the satirist/ comedian however must respect the logic of their chosen setting (impersonating the enemy to exxagerate and thus unveil the enemy’s line of evil thinking) to deliver the point, i.e. enter the stage as ‘racist guy/ gal’ and leave it as such.

]]> By: ruidh https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15104 Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:31:49 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15104 Some of the most successful comics earn their success by disconnecting their self-censorship mechanism and by literally saying anything at all that pops into their head. The late, great Jonathan Winters and the still active Robin WIlliams utilized this stream of consciousness method. But sometimes this approach to comedy goes horribly awry.

I don’t believe Michael Richards is racist because it appears that he is very sincere in his apology. He just went in the wrong direction and was unable to tell he had gone too far.

]]> By: ACS https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15103 Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:50:28 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15103 From Letterman

Theres a new doll out this christmas – heckle me Kramer

]]> By: Jason https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15102 Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:05:56 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15102 Regardless of Richard’s intent and thoughts, things were said that will be hard to forget, and his image of fun-loving Kramer will be slightly muted.

Malcom Gladwell has some really interesting thoughts on this here:
http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/12/defining_a_raci.html

Due to his multi-ethnic heritage, I am always interested in his observations on race, and I feel he does a remarkable job weighing facts without personal or emotional bias.

]]> By: Steve https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15101 Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:46:59 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15101 Multiple definitions might help make the terms a little clearer.

1. Epistemology

2. Ontology

]]> By: ACS https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15100 Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:01:46 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15100 I was going to write a long post about freedom of speech and the oppresion of hegemonic control of language and ideas through political correctness and shaming but in the end you’re right – he’s a twat.

]]> By: Friedrich https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15099 Thu, 23 Nov 2006 07:04:46 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15099 racisim is dead. racism remains dead. and we have killed it. how shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves?

]]> By: Ben https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15098 Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:41:06 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15098 Yes I agree…
“I’m with Alan. Can someone explain, in plain english, what ontology and epistemology mean in this context?”

What is the meaning in context for normal folk like myself?

cheers,

http://www.webexperts.co.nz

]]> By: Matthew Skala https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15097 Wed, 22 Nov 2006 13:11:59 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15097 CONTEXT PLS

I don’t watch US television, and it’s quite often the case that when you post items about current US news stories here, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Searching in Google News gave me a rough idea for this one, but that’s problematic because what’s on there right now is reactions to the reactions to the reactions to the incident, instead of information about the actual incident itself (which is now yesterday’s news and long dead). You generally do a pretty good job of summarizing the context for the law-related items; that would be welcome for the “current events” type of items also.

]]> By: Anonymous https://archives.lessig.org/?p=3293#comment-15096 Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:50:48 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2006/11/is_he_a_racist.html#comment-15096 I’m with Alan. Can someone explain, in plain english, what ontology and epistemology mean in this context?

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