Did you know the cast of Seinfeld is going to be on the show Curb Your Enthusiasm? Yes it was there on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. It seems like a good natured thing and those New York urbane humor loving folks are digging through their collected DVDs looking for insider sayings to write and tell other people, just to prove how hip they are. Of course, when geeks get excited about a geek cast, like oh some from Battlestar Galactica (the new series) we’re kind of thought of as a little loony. Well, that’s OK.

Something else has me a bit concerned. It was a few years ago when Michael Richards, he who is remembered as Kramer, did a not so funny thing at a comedy store. This was just as camera phones became a defacto accessory, so there was some deniability that occurred before the video came out, which only damaged things further. For those who may have forgotten, Michael Richards was at a comedy club, was being heckled, and then went into a racial rant at the patrons. Yes he said the N-word to the audience and made other racial references. Here is part of the article written by TMZ in November 20, 2006 on the incident.

The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass."

Richards continued, "You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now motherf**ker. Throw his ass out. He's a nigger! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! A nigger, look, there's a nigger!"

The crowd is visibly and audibly confused and upset. Richards responds by saying, "They're going to arrest me for calling a black man a nigger."

One of the men who was the object of Richard's tirade was outraged, shouting back "That's un-f***ing called for, ain't necessary."

After the three-minute tirade, it appears the majority of the audience members got up and left in disgust.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/20/kramers-racist-tirade-caught-on-tape/#ixzz0PZwrrgP1

See not very Kramer like. In the old days, something like this would have cast Richards out forever, but he’s back on the cover of EW, smiling along with the rest of the cast. Someone might approach him on the question of what happened back in 2006, if the publicist will let that happen, and I’m sure he will give some heartfelt apology for it.

I understand how we as Americans tend to forgive people of their shortcomings. We tend to give folks a second, third, fifth chance on things if we feel they are remorseful enough. What gets me is we will give more forgiveness to celebrities, to known people than we will to the average Joe. I get a kick of watching court room shows like Judge Joe Brown. Just the other day, as he always does, he dispensed a bit of social anger to a woman. It technically didn’t have anything to do with the case, but he reigned down on her because she had five kids under ten years old and two babies’ daddies. Another judge show, Judge Joe Brown, did the same thing that day with another woman.

Not that I’m condoning it, but we will attack these women but Madonna and Angelina Jolie are praised because they are taking care of a lot of children; some their own and others adopted. They don’t have husbands and the press doesn’t attack their child rearing skills. Richards does a tirade with the words he used, said sorry and now he’s reunited with the cast from the show. It’s too soon for Dustin Diamond, who was recently excluded from a Saved By The Bell reunion shoot because of his outrageous antics the past few years, but I bet years from now there will be some forgiveness for him.

Meanwhile, the women on the court shows will be marked for the rest of their lives. They won’t have the cover of a magazine to show their redemption, if any. People in all walks of life are branded one way and that stain can be the impression people have for years. In a lot of cases there won’t be a change for redemption, for second chances. We would rather believe someone we don’t know, with handlers, means and protection, to change their ways which have been recorded and noted extensively, can change their ways rather than someone in front of us who can tell their story without camera and press agents. Those are the folks who are kicked to the curb and discarded.

So Kramer, despite the evidence to the contrary, will get another bite at the apple.