Kramer's outburst

[Cipher]

I would call bulls on this one. If he had done the same thing but said nigga instead of nigger nothing would have changed. It is the context and not the word...and who says it. No white person in their head screwed on right goes around certain neighbor hoods calling each other a nigga or nigger.

To clarify, I stated that as a sort of factoid. There really is a difference between the three variations, at least in some black people's minds. And scholarly linguists (like Geneva Smitherman) are quick to agree.

But the use of the n-word is context more than anything, and I apologize if I wasn't clear about that.

To me it looked like he was going to try to go somewhere with the whole thing but lost his train of thought and just started doing whatever. I thought that comment you quoted was hilarious...as I have already said.

It looked to me like he went off on his rant and as an afterthought attempted salvage his credibility by trying to turn it into a joke. Until the guys in the background said something else, and all thoughts of trying to save face went out the window.

It's all a matter of speculation though, I suppose. No one knows what went on in Richards' head but Richards himself.