I haven’t commented on either the recent O.J. Simpson or Michael Richards news stories because they’re outside the purview of this blog, but this column by Erin Aubry Kaplan in the Los Angeles Times is too stupid to be real. Kaplan compares the two news stories and argues they prove that Americans are more tolerant of a white man’s misbehavior than of a black man’s. No, really; I am not exaggerating. Sample paragraph:

I’m not equating racist invective with charges of double homicide. But the reality is that there is far more tolerance for a white person’s unseemly behavior than for similar behavior of somebody who isn’t white, especially if the unseemliness involves race. Richards’ “racist rant” has been described as a terrible but isolated incident. O.J., meanwhile, is condemned for his character.

I think committing a double homicide does speak poorly for one’s character, but that’s me. I haven’t been paying close enough attention to the Richards episode to have noticed anyone defending his character — I assume some of his friends have — but it’s obvious that in the court of public opinion Richards’s character has been found wanting.

I’m looking at the reaction to Richards’s rant, and I’m not seeing tolerance. I’m seeing shock and revulsion.

The truth is that Richards’s career, such as it was, is most likely over now. He can probably get gigs in dinner theater in the redneck circuit, but that’s it. I’ll be very surprised if he’s ever again booked into respectable venues in urban areas. I’m sure he gets some income from the perpetual syndication of the old Seinfeld series, but Richards’s outburst might even take the shine off that. (And hasn’t everyone who actually liked that series seen all the episodes three times already?)

I agree with Eugene Robinson when he says that recent episodes — Richards’s rant; the George Allen “macaca” moment — reveal a strong undercurrent of racism in America.

… as a society, we still haven’t purged ourselves of racial prejudices and animosities. We’ve buried them under layers of sincere enlightenment and insincere political correctness, but they’re still down there, eating at our souls.

Yes, but it’s also true that a big, multiracial cross-section of America were genuinely disgusted by both episodes, and both men are paying a price. Forty years ago these tirades wouldn’t even have been news; the nation has not been purged of racism, but it has largely repented of it, and that’s progress. And I’m more than a little disturbed when the actions of one individual — well, OK, two — are held up as being representative of the entire white population of North America. Particularly when much of said population expressed disapproval.

Richards’s behavior has caused him to be in the contemporary equivalent of the pillory. The whole country is throwing virtual rotten tomatoes at his exposed, racist head. And yes, a lot of those throwing tomatoes are just as guilty as he is. But a lot of us are really, truly sickened by what he did.