NAACP Joins the Beverly Hills/Hollywood Branch in Condemning the Racist Remarks Made by Michael Richards

November 21, 2006

The California State NAACP joins the Beverly Hills Hollywood Branch in condemning Michael Richards for his racial tirade where he uttered racial epithets during his stand-up comedy show in Los Angeles.

“It is more than about Richards using the “N” word which in itself is insulting, said Alice Huffman, President, “what he said in his statement that 50 years ago those guys would have been hung upside down with a fork in their ass---is to insult the memory of all the blacks enslaved and free who were lynched because of the color of their skin. He insulted Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, the maimed and murdered civil rights workers and mostly the thousands of blacks and whites who marched”.

If we let this be only about the use of the word nigger, we will have lost the argument. Richards is Jewish, and his comments continue to hurt the Black\Jewish coalition that began to unravel with the lawsuit by Bakke, a Jewish student against Black Students affirmative action admission to the university. The firestorm that hit Mel Gibson after his venal and racist remarks about the Jewish community was the right thing to nail him for his conduct and behavior. The same must be done to Richards and someone in the Jewish community besides Seinfeld needs to join in the public outcry against such “hate” rhetoric.

“When we think this through--Richard's use of the N word is stupid and racist--his harking back to the lynching of hundreds and thousands of blacks is totally unequivocally unacceptable and he needs to be told there are some things you can say that cannot be forgiven or taken back”, Huffman said.

Richard’s appearance on the Letterman show was misplaced and seemed disingenuous. Is David Letterman going to joke about Richards like he joked about Gibson? We want to see equal treatment by the press, comedians and talk shows; our community deserves and demands it.

The California State NAACP is comprised of 52 Branches and more that 30 Youth chapters and is part of this nation’s oldest civil rights organization, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Contact: (916) 498-1898