The beloved community

"Alright you see? This shocks you, it shocks you to see what's buried beneath you stupid motherfuckers...You see? You see, there's still those words, those words, those words."

Those may be the some of the last words Michael Richards (Kramer on Seinfeld) ever speaks on stage. Watching the video of his unhinging is a deeply troubling experience; it's a tragedy in three minutes. The virulence of his racism is both shocking and queasily familiar.

This video clip was recorded on the cell phone of an audience member at last Friday's Laugh Factory show in L.A. By the end of the clip, Richards seems completed defeated: a breakdown in 3 minutes. But he sure seems like he was haunted already. Despite all the creative license he is given to shock us out of our moral context, he cannot dislodge the power of the n-word, not for his audience, and certainly not for himself.

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I can't wait for Thanksgiving. I am feeling stressed and behind in some of my work, but if I just think about school in terms of what I dreamed of getting out of it--then I and all of us are doing just fine. So, what are you doing tonight to build the beloved community?