The last week gave us one of the most entertaining audio/video clips to ever grace the HTML code of YouTube. We saw a scrawny little fellow stand on the corner, screaming about killing crackers, their babies, and hollering at a black fellow who was/is dating a white woman. We saw his General, lawyer, and Chairman defend him and the idea of killing white babies (in certain contexts) in an interview that was almost equally hilarious. These two men have sent millions of people into a state of stunned disbelief, followed by riotous laughter and great mirth.

Why?

I think it’s a fair question, don’t you?

Please, examine the clip of King Shamir Shabazz one more time:

When you watch it, especially at the beginning of the clip where he discusses how much he hates every iota of one of us “crackas,” can’t you see the hate? It’s obvious from his eyes that it runs deep, sinking its life-destroying tendrils into the very marrow of his bones. He really does hate white people. With an unholy passion. He really does believe that white babies need to be slaughtered so that they can’t grow up and become adult white devils. His henchmen loitering around him also believe this rhetoric as well!

But what is interesting to me isn’t the ranting of some hate-filled moron dressed up like a rejected Stargate extra, it’s society’s reaction towards his words.

King Shamir Shabazz was preaching his hate in the hope, maybe subconscious hope, that he would be rewarded with a reaction which acknowledged him, which recognized him as a possible threat, something to take seriously. He was looking for anger, fear, or a return of his hatred. Emotions which would let him know that white people had been affected by his words, that they understood his message, and were forced to respond by the power of it.

Such emotions would have been very empowering to King Shamir. But he didn’t get the response for which he was looking.

Instead, what has happened? Almost universal derision. Every white person who sees the clip just starts laughing their posteriors off. It’s freakin’ hilarious, and people can’t help but to chuckle at the sight of this wispy, gnomish fellow with a poor attempt at a beard spouting hatred of white people on a street full of black people, not somewhere that would truly require some cajones, like in a predominately white Plains state, or deep in the Heart of Dixie.

Could you imagine him trying to pull that nonsense off in some small rural town in Alabama or Mississippii? Not so much.

Needless to say, the reaction inspired by King Shamir’s ranting has been unempowering, the exact opposite of what the man was looking for when he said it. And we can also see that this reaction is at least somewhat dependent upon racial and cultural differences. I’m sure everyone remembers Michael Richard’s (Cosmo Kramer) fall from grace. He wasn’t anywhere near as hateful and mean as King Shamir, yet his words caused a massive uproar, and pretty much put his career on hold for the better part of a decade, despite all of the apologies he has made.

The question remains: Why is this?

In my opinion, King Shabazz is being mocked because of Richard Pryor’s legacy.

Seriously! Think about it. In today’s PC-obsessed world, the only place we hear racially charged speech is when it comes from the mouths of black comedians. For some reason, they’re the only ones society has deemed acceptable to comment on racial differences, and to make jokes filled with racial epithets.

Look at this short clip from Chris Rock’s “Bigger and Blacker” show.

What is he saying? The exact same things that King Shamir Shabazz is saying! Black people hate white people. They don’t have time to break us white people up into separate groups, they just hate us all, regardless of whether or not we just got off the boat. It’s the exact same hate speech, minus the calls for the execution of white people and their children.

And maybe we’d have heard that message from Chris Rock if he wasn’t making millions of dollars because of all the white people buying his CDs and watching his movies. Who knows?

Look around you. The evidence is plentiful.

In that clip, Martin Lawrence discusses racism. He makes fun of white people and mimes beating up Miss Daisy, an old white woman, and throwing her out of a car, all while screaming racial epithets.

Or try Dave Chapelle’s work.

In his infamous clip about the black white supremacist, he makes jokes about white people being inbred, ignorant savages. His comedy is also supercharged with racial anger and chocked full of racial slurs, exactly like King Shabazz’s idiotic ramblings.

All of this “comedy” is the result of the monumental success of Richard Pryor, who pioneered the use of racially charged sketches, bits, and characters. He revolutionized “comedy” and I imagine that’d you’d be hard pressed to find a black comedian who doesn’t consider him a mentor, an influence, and a master of the craft.  He paved the way for Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock.

And the result of Mr. Pryor’s success has been to condition white people. Since the vast majority of the discussion about racism in America is fed to us through comedy routines, we’ve become accustomed to laughing when a black man stands up and shouts “I hate crackas!” Whole theatres full of people jumped to their feet and applauded when Chris Rock said virtually the same things as the lunatic New Black Panthers shouting through a bullhorn. Dave Chapelle snapped off a couple of cracka jokes and those jokes made him the most important person on Comedy Central, along with making him several million dollars.

White people don’t view racially charged explosions from angry black men as threatening anymore. We see it as entertainment. But how are we supposed to seriously address racial issues when we’re conditioned to laugh at them, and the people who discuss them? How are we supposed to pick the real angry, dangerous individuals out of the large crowds of black comedians saying the same things because they’re trying to make a buck?

There is real hatred in people like King Shamir Shabazz. Seething, bubbling cauldrons full of animosity. These people have reasons for their anger as well, even if they are not founded in reality, but we cannot look that deeply at the problem while it is still considered comedic fodder for stand-up routines. We’re too busy being taught to laugh at the rage, and to ignore the foundation upon which it rests, the effect of which drives these angry individuals to even more hate, even more outrageous outbursts.

People like King Shamir Shabazz are trying to say something of import. They are crying out to communicate how unhappy they are, and why they’re unhappy, but the root of these feelings can never be dealt with because we’re too busy laughing and pointing fingers at them rather than trying to help them. We don’t make any attempt to understand their worldview because we’ve been told that this isn’t anything to worry about, that we should try to find it a recreational diversion, not a topic of deadly seriousness. We, as a society, are firmly stuck in the “denial” stage of dealing with our racial problems.

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