No, It's A Moron Hole
The guy should be irate at himself for being a county commissioner who is apparently completely clueless about stuff they teach you in fifth grade science. And then there's the judge who joined in. Check this out, from the Dallas Morning News City Hall Blog, from a discussion between county commissioners about traffic ticket collections:
Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."
That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.
Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term.
Perhaps what Dallas taxpayers really need is Wite Out to take these two off the list of local public officials. Oh, and that's not a racist term, it's an office supply.
And perhaps what these two should be focusing their time on is education -- starting with their own remedial education, in summer school.
Sounds like a bunch of white noise to me. ;)
Cousin Dave at July 10, 2008 8:14 AM
...county commissioner who is apparently completely clueless about stuff they teach you in fifth grade science.
Maybe the school board was too niggardly with the funds for science textbooks.
Conan the Grammarian at July 10, 2008 8:33 AM
Damn Conan! You took my comment almost word for word!
Eric at July 10, 2008 8:35 AM
Well, a simple reading of Mr. Price's webpage confirm us that he's a race hustler. For him, this is free publicity. Looks like we will need to review all the terms using the word "Black".
Toubrouk at July 10, 2008 8:37 AM
We had a black-out the other day - oops - I mean a white-out (which actually has something to do with snow).
Chrissy at July 10, 2008 8:48 AM
Ah-hahahahaha. Idiocracy in action. All this does is confirm my opinion of the judiciary and most local politicians, an opinion built by dozens of interactions.
Jay at July 10, 2008 8:52 AM
Stupid should hurt. Seriously.
Ann at July 10, 2008 9:04 AM
"Race hustler" is the perfect term for it.
Amy Alkon at July 10, 2008 9:21 AM
John Price and Judge Jones are Black Holes.
David H at July 10, 2008 9:36 AM
As I've said before, many a time, in many a forum, some people get out of bed just looking to be offended.
XBradTC at July 10, 2008 10:47 AM
Many of them read my column. Every week, I get a bunch of letters from people offended about something; not what you'd expect...usually some bit of humor, and I have to explain "It's a metaphor," blah blah blah. Nothing more boring than explaining humor.
Amy Alkon at July 10, 2008 11:05 AM
They're just green with envy over our white goods. It leaves them feeling blue.
Cousin Dave at July 10, 2008 12:18 PM
OK, people are way too sensitive. Those idiots in Dallas should just go suck on it.
Just off the student bulletin board at Texas A and M:
...annual contest held on campus, calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.
This year's term was "Political Correctness."
The winning entry: "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
Sterling at July 10, 2008 12:58 PM
Well, Amy, my usual response? If someone takes offense at something that is patently not offensive?
"Fuck you"
If I'm to be accused of being offensive, I'm damn well going to BE offensive.
XBradTC at July 10, 2008 2:42 PM
The ignorance of physics or English is irrelevant in these cases; feigning "offense" here is a deliberate act of manipulation, control and 'bullying' - an overt aggression aimed at beating down others, rather than the passive response of some victim. If there is a victim here it is Mayfield.
These behaviors make more sense once you see them for what they are - purposeful, aggressive manipulation aimed at bullying whites into subjugation - and understanding this nature helps formulate more appropriate responses than spending your life tiptoeing around eggshells afraid to speak your own language freely (which is absurd).
David J at July 10, 2008 5:32 PM
*facepalm*
The WTFuckery is strong w/this one!
Kim at July 10, 2008 6:41 PM
Note that CNN is running "Am I Black Enough?" under the ongoing series "Black In America" on its homepage.
It's a business.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 10, 2008 7:58 PM
The proper response (if you're willing to risk physical harm) when some race-pimp gets all huffy over the use of the word "black" is this:
"Shaddup, nigger."
Nothing offends quite so well as a dose of perspective.
brian at July 10, 2008 9:56 PM
Apperently there were cameras rolling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc1zGRUPztc
lujlp at July 10, 2008 10:59 PM
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=6955161&version=1&locale=EN-US
Here is a vidoe of the moron defending his position that black holes are racist
lujlp at July 10, 2008 11:11 PM
Heres a video with a blurb for the judge who wanted an apology
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=6957644&version=1&locale=EN-US
after the judge its just a recap of the interview with Price, but there was a pretty funny quote from the white guy
lujlp at July 10, 2008 11:24 PM
> Nothing offends quite
> so well as a dose of
> perspective
That's the wack-est comment you've made this week, and competition is fierce. Maybe you didn't mean to sound bitterly racist, though you're not the first of Amy's southern commenters to drift into the zone. Presumably, you'd hoped to leverage the cleverness of these two sturdy aphorisms:
* Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance. - Sam Brown, Washington Post, January 26, 1977
* No statement of fact can be insolent. - Unknown, often credited to "Orac"
But you call to mind these words from an alt-weekly columnist:
* If ignorance were Corn Flakes, you'd be Kellogg's of Battle Creek. - Cecil Adams
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at July 11, 2008 12:13 AM
"southern commenters", but I'm the ignorant one.
"black hole" is offensive, but I'm a racist?
No, sir. I am neither southern, nor a racist. I'm a classist and an anti-idiotarian.
Any person so dumb as to not know one of the oldest concepts in astronomy ought not be in a position where he has anything resembling power.
And given his behaviour, he's certainly low enough in the class scale where he ought not be engaged in public discourse.
I mean, really. Who lets these room-temperature IQ assholes be county commissioners and judges?
And I must also disagree with Mr. Brown. Some people are just too stupid to be offended by substance because they can't even understand that the joke's on them.
brian at July 11, 2008 5:30 AM
Oh, there was discrimination happening here all right...
I am glad the guy who was being discriminated against stuck to his guns and still told the news afterwards that he was using a science term. And I'd agree with the assessment that Mr. Sensivity (who thinks whitewash apparently isn't a negative term) needs a good shrink. So does the so-called judge.
Oh, and hello, maybe it's called a black hole simply because it's in color, like, um, hello?, get this -- black.
Donna (T's Grammy) at July 11, 2008 6:06 AM
The point I don't think I made was this:
We have a set of people in this country who have decided to take offense at anything that might reference a term that might have been used in a negative way towards people of african extraction ever.
Hence any construct that contains the word "black" being used to describe an endeavor where there are, in fact, black people involved is taken as offensive if certain people say it.
"black hole", "tar baby", "tar pit" -- all terms used to represent the canonical "thing from which nothing escapes".
The instant you put a black person in a bureaucracy that is, in fact, a place from which nothing escapes, and you call it a "black hole", the grievance mongers hear one thing, and one thing only: "See, this is what happens when you put a nigger in charge."
This is why we must demand that the meaning ascribed to any act of communication be defined not by the person hearing it, but by the person SAYING it.
brian at July 11, 2008 6:17 AM
Posting before coffee is bad, m'kay?
The first sentence above ought to read "The point I had intended to make was this:"
That makes it much clearer what's going on in this fuzzy head of mine.
brian at July 11, 2008 7:55 AM
Donna -
A black hole isn't really black. It's lack of color is caused by the fact that no visible radiation is emanated from its surface, and it's opaque so no light that's behind it gets through.
brian at July 11, 2008 8:37 AM
"southern commenters", but I'm the ignorant one.
"black hole" is offensive, but I'm a racist?
No, sir. I am neither southern, nor a racist. I'm a classist and an anti-idiotarian.
Any person so dumb as to not know one of the oldest concepts in astronomy ought not be in a position where he has anything resembling power.
Hey, there's plenty of room for multiple ignorant ones in this situation! There's also plenty of room for John Price and Judge Jones to both be offensive twits, yet to also have it be true that you are racist for using the N word in the way you have used it.
Oh, and by the way, "black hole" as an astronomical concept has only been around since the 1960s, so it's far from being one of the oldest concepts in astronomy. Shocking but true, given how well established the concept is!
I have to agree with this, though, but only to a point, because you can't strip a word of all of its meaning just by saying you want to: "This is why we must demand that the meaning ascribed to any act of communication be defined not by the person hearing it, but by the person SAYING it."
Quizzical at July 11, 2008 9:15 AM
Sorry, Brian. I am an idiot when it comes to science. I just don't grasp it. But I think my point stands. It's called a black hole because it looks black in color -- so to speak.
T's Grammy at July 11, 2008 9:15 AM
I eat my words. A quick google image search proves me wrong even on that. I am woefully ignorant.
But, man, do a google image on black holes. There are some beautiful pictures there.
T's Grammy at July 11, 2008 9:21 AM
Galaxies can merge!?
T's Grammy at July 11, 2008 9:24 AM
Galaxies can merge!?
Only on the freeway and only if they use their signals. ;-)
That makes it much clearer what's going on in this fuzzy head of mine.
Not really.
Using a racist epithet on someone with whom you are arguing is not likely to give that person "a dose of perspective" no matter how much you smile while doing it.
Counter stupidity with knowledge, not more stupidity.
..."black hole" as an astronomical concept has only been around since the 1960s....
The term "black hole," in reference to an astronomical construct, was first recorded in the 1960s.
A British geographer conceived the idea of a body so massive that not even light could escape it as early as 1783.
The term "black hole" had been used earlier than that to refer to the "Black Hole of Calcutta" incident in 1756. In this disputed story, 146 British prisoners of an Indian ruler were locked overnight in a very small and cramped prison cell in the heat of an Indian summer. Conditions were so bad that 123 died of suffocation and being crushed before morning.
"Black hole" has a long history of being used to refer to a place from which things do not return.
Conan the Grammarian at July 11, 2008 10:31 AM
I disagree. The use of a word, in any context, does not a racist make. If I were to deliberately maltreat all black persons I encounter or refer to them all as "nigger", then you'd have a point.
The purpose of my statement is to shock an idiot by saying, in language he will understand very quickly "you want a racist comment? I'll show you what one looks like, motherfucker."
In the case of the permanent grievance industry, you won't change them until the profit is gone from the racket. And their followers? Well, you can't fix stupid.
I'm not arguing that at all. I'm taking the same position as Jeff at Protein Wisdom (link is only a starting point for Jeff's analysis) on the subject. When we read a text, we must necessarily understand its meaning to be that which was given to it by the person writing/saying it. To post-hoc imbue it with a meaning from the perspective of an activist reader is wrong.
What happened in this incident is that the person hearing the comment decided that it must have been "encoded" with a special meaning because it came from a white person. And it takes a special kind of racist to assume that everything a white man says is somehow encoded with racism.
My original comment was simply the rudest possible way of expressing the old adage "sometimes an asshole needs to be told he's an asshole."
brian at July 11, 2008 3:13 PM
I think Price is right! In fact, I'm now renaming Devil's Food Cake as of this moment. And I'm going to rename it after Price himself, in his honor, for pointing this out to us all.
So, from now on the confection known as Devil's Food Cake will be referred to as Hypersensitive Dumbass Cake.
Whatcha think?
Patrick at July 16, 2008 6:44 AM
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