Halle Berry recently made what was viewed as an inappropriate joke on the Tonight Show. She brought some computer distorted pictures of herself and said that one picture made her “look like my Jewish cousin.” The Tonight Show made sure the comments were editing out of the actual airing.
Duane Dog Chapman had his phone conversation released to the National Enquirer where he used the N-word. I haven’t heard the full tape, but from what I heard he used the N-word multiple times.
My commentary: I’m getting tired of these “gotcha” moments. (I will admit that Halle Berry’s comments are rather mild compared to Duane Dog Chapman’s.) The problem I have here is that we’re trying to hold celebrities up to this gold standard of behavior when we know that we’re not all that perfect when it comes to racial bias. I live in a city which has a large minority population. Whenever someone says “those drivers are crazy” everyone knows it is code word for the minority population. Yes, Chapman’s comments are offensive, but those comments were made in a private conversation and shouldn’t have ever been released. And yes, you can argue that what he said is what he truly believes. And based on those two issues, you can argue he should be punished in some manner. I think that our society needs to show more forgiveness and shouldn’t demand more from a celebrity when the very fact is that we’re almost all guilty of it.
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