The N-word. Nigga for short. You "M%$..Fu%$%$ Niggers!" for the seasoned vets (you know who you are). Ever wonder why black people still get mad at being called that word? Have you ever called a Spanish person a Mexican and had them go crazy? Have you ever called a short person a midget to find it offended him or her? Have you ever called a whore a whore and wound up being slapped in the face? Well, I've done all of those things. No, I'm just kidding. But I'm not kidding when I say that I can explain those reactions and more.
I believe that people react to being called a certain name as a defense mechanism spawned by one of four things. When someone calls you a name, you get mad either because what they're calling you is what you actually are and you're ashamed of it, or because you're pretty darn close to being what they're calling you, or because you despise the people who just happen to be what they're calling you, or because there's nothing more that you love than just some old-fashioned drama.
I believe the whole world tries to control us. From our governments, to commercials, to even our closest friends. When Suzie sees the boy she used to like who left her for some other girl walk in the room, she immediately gets upset and mumbles things under her breath. Her day is now ruined. Her life is controlled by a guy who probably doesn't deserve that control at all. Maybe Suzie, the black person, the Jew, and all the rest should control their own emotions instead of handing the remote of their most inner selves to those who will be reckless with it.
At the laugh factory, Cosmo Kramer was in the wrong.. but only because he used the N-word. I bet you even the black guy who was heckling him would've said Kramer had the right to comeback with something. But it was the N-word. The almighty weapon of the white man in their never-ending pursuit to destroy the Black community. But I believe Blacks had it right for a while- even though whites didn't understand. When we started calling ourselves niggas, we did something smart. We reversed it and embraced the word to expel it from doing us any further harm. But we need to take that a step further and not let any word ever harm us. Words are only taboo if you make them so, and keeping anything taboo only gives it strength. Dork used to be a word as offensive as fuck back in the day as it meant a whale's penis, I believe. Stupid used to be reserved for truly mentally retarded individuals and was never intended to offend. Gay used to mean homosexual... now it just means happy. Oh wait... switch that last one. But truly we give strength and weaken different words by overusing or underusing them. What is taboo is truly enticing. Watch what happens to the child who was sheltered at home all their life when he or she finally goes off to College (aka DrunkFest). Furthermore, words are just sounds. I could list several foreign words that mean nigger and some other offensive terms and you probably wouldn't get mad because you don't know the meaning. Well, that's ignorant. You should judge a word by its intentions. If someone jokingly calls you a profane word, let it slide. If someone means you harm and says it without profanity, you might want to take that seriously.
So that black man should've been mad at Kramer- if he was to get mad at all- whether or not Kramer ever said the N-word. But maybe the whore should hide the fact she's a whore by reacting to the word she was just called like a virgin would, because the virgin would probably just shrug it off. If you called me a midget, I'd probably just look at you funny since I'm 6'7''. Call a straight A student an idiot, you'll probably get no response at all. Call some dude who just dropped out of high school an idiot, he'll probably want to fight. So what I'm saying is if you're a nigga and somebody calls you a nigga, don't get mad and maybe they'll start to believe you're not a nigga. If you're Spanish and you get mad at someone for calling you Mexican, you probably have a little animosity or condescending attitude towards the Mexican community. If you just love drama, I don't know what to tell you. And if you want control in your life, start controlling your life and don't let others control it for you.. especially those who don't deserve it. And from what I've seen in the video is that maybe Cosmo Kramer (even if he was higher than a kite at the time) doesn't appear to be a person deserving of that control in our lives. And lastly, Kramer took the easy way out. He knew what word would incite that anger and he just sought for a quick fix to the situation. A comedian should be witty enough to go blow to blow with a random heckler without taking the side door exit. And- for the record- I still love and will still watch Seinfeld.
some afterthoughts:
America might be the only country to have issues like this (or at least issues like this as publicized). But this might just come from the fact we have the most diverse setting in the world.. and that will always be a beauiful thing. You can't have a melting pot without a few sparks shooting out every once in a while. America's great, but there are bad parts to everything. That's the irony of it all. All the things that make us great are also the source of our greatest problems. The diversity, freedom of speech, etc...