Today’s news reports that Michael Richards has made additional attempts to close the wounds he inflicted during a recent stand-up comedy routine. Several days ago, he responded to hecklers at a show by repeatedly calling them a racial slur. He offended the hecklers, audience members and many who later heard about it on the news. Within a day, he issued a public apology expressing remorse for his outburst.

He rightly concluded this wasn’t adequate and arranged though Jerry Seinfield to appear on the Letterman show, where he repeated his apology. In doing so however, he had only made two public apologies. Some people concluded that was adequate and public scrutiny should focus on other matters, such as the Iraq war. Fortunately, television commentators and the written press realized the issue was too important to ignore. They provided us with additional analysis from experts who discussed whether his apology was sufficient, whether he was a racist, how he compared to Mel Gibson and whether he was just the tip of the iceberg for the underlying racism in this country.

Michael Richards did his own analysis and understood that his apology was insufficient: he is a racist, his behavior made Mel Gibson pale in comparison and no, he is not the tip of the racism iceberg; he is the iceberg. This realization prompted him to take an additional step on the road to atonement. With the assistance of a concerned publicist, he made separate calls to Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton and personally apologized to both clergymen.

Both Reverends are reported to have graciously accepted his calls and allowed him to express remorse for hurting their feelings. We have yet to hear the Reverend Sharpton’s reaction, but Reverend Jackson issued a statement. Reverend Jackson informed us that Richards is embarrassed and “clearly needs some race sensibility training and some psychiatric help”. His diagnosis also noted that Richards has volatile anger and is a “danger to himself and others”. Reverend Jackson also expressed the concern that “the culture that’s producing this kind of animosity toward blacks” be addressed. He added that “we’re increasingly facing cultural isolation in Hollywood, in the movies and in TV”.

There is speculation that Reverend Jackson is willing to personally provide both race sensibility training and psychiatric help to Richards. The reverend has not confirmed this and has not indicated if he will come to his beloved “hymietown” to meet with Richards or his publicist. It is well known that he was deeply offended when New Yorkers, particularly Jewish New Yorkers, suggested the Reverend’s use of the expression “hymietown” might indicate anti-Semitism on his part for what reasonable people understood was clearly a humorous remark. The failure of Jewish New Yorkers to apologize for their obvious racist reaction to his humor has made the Reverend cut back on his visits to his beloved Hymietown. In his reaction to Richards, the reverend helpfully noted that “we have to evaluate the use of the n-word and categorize it as hate speech, no matter who uses it." Sources speculate that any law banning the use of the n-word would also include the use of the word “Hymie”, but the Reverend has not commented on this.

It is anticipated that Reverend Sharpton is still praying for Richards and will issue a reaction in several days.

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