A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon. County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.
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. A black hole, according to Webster’s, is perhaps “the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape.” Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track. TV news cameras were rolling, after all.
Oh Brother…will this madness ever end? My five year old nephew knows what a black hole is. I guess bobbo will defend this too.
I say Bobbo! Spot on!
I wasn’t surprised by the knee jerk reaction to the ‘black hole’ comment as people commonly react to their immediate interpretation, but for someone else to ask for an apology after a simple explanation of the term is proof of astounding ignorance.
Woe be unto those black men who own large department stores in S. Dallas. Just after New Years a few years ago they decided to advertise the “John Wiley Price White Sale.”
This faux pas still makes the “gossip” rounds in Big D nearly every year in Jan.
This situation is so stupid and embarrassing, it’s a shame we have to waste time discussing another person’s ignorance. This idiot is a race-baiting fool, and should be taken outside and beaten. He has single-handedly perpetuated negative stereotypes about the stupidity, ignorance, and belligerence of colored people.
I’m ashamed that there are those who look at that boorish waste of skin (regardless of color) and think he represents the way some people think. The saddest part is that there are others who think stupid shit like thsi as well of all stripes.
#44 He’s just part of the problem. The bigger issue is, who put him there?
Racist is as racist does.
Um, I think the most important thing about this story is that this insanity actually came out of elected officials!?!?!?!?
Oddly enough, so-called black ops are usually carried out by white guys. Then there’s Cheney’s Star Warsian “dark side” and the coming Dark Knight who is also a white guy. Shady business.
Soon now, every reference to darkness, blackness, color of any kind, shadiness of every imaginable type, and eventually, the word “tonality” will become a potential racial slur. Just like MLK dreamed. (Not)
At least “chocolate” remains positive. Maybe we could replace all racial references with that. You got your White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate. The group Hot Chocolate showed us it’s a Sexy Thing.
Unless the C word were attached to some description, everybody would know that it had nothing to do with race and once again words like black, dark, shady, ebony, black-and-white, colored, yellow, red and brown would revert to their original meanings, right?
That’s all we have to do–get everybody on the same language page and all these verbal references will evaporate!
“Did he use the C word? Nope? Then it wasn’t a racial reference. Stand down.”
Easy as cake. Simple as pie.
I want to believe that black people are as smart as anyone else. Any reasonably informed layman should know what a black hole is. Is this guy intellectually sub-par? Unfortunate stereotype re-enforced today.
#49: The stereotype is not of black people. I know plenty of whites who wouldn’t know it either. These are people who just don’t care unless it affects them directly, and something light years away isn’t even close to being in their view. However, you seeing a black man lacking knowledge you feel everyone should know and pegging him as the “stereotype re-enforced” you are re-enforcing yourself as the stereotype racist.
How the hell did this turned into a black or white discussion? And I though…nevermind
50. “I know plenty of whites who wouldn’t know it either.”
Funny story. DU ran a vid a week ago or so showing how 50% of a French game show audience thought the Sun rotated around the Earth while 45% thought the Moon rotated around the Earth. Stupid French, I thought. Silly me.
I told that story to my brother while my sister and mother listened on. My brother laughed in amazement. I didn’t notice at the time but there was complete silence from my mother and sister. A short while later, they were embarrassed to ask me what the correct answer was. Here I was in the good ol’ USA and 50% of the people in the room did not know the answer. In the end, had to sit down and explain the basics of Solar System orbits (with visual aids, no less).
I also found out my sister thought the Earth was closer to the Sun during the summer and that was why it was hotter. I had to explain that we were really no closer (okay, maybe an insignificant few thousand miles) but rather that the Sun was simply higher in the sky due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis as the planet revolves around the Sun.
Obviously, she did not pay attention in Earth Science class. My sister and I went to the same schools and she never learned this little nugget of information. Even after living on the planet for many decades, it never occurred to her that the Earth is not the center of the Solar System.
Consequently, I feel rather confident that neither my mother or sister has even the slightly clue of what a black hole is.
#52 “I had to explain that we were really no closer (okay, maybe an insignificant few thousand miles)”
During summer (Northern hemisphere) the Earth is further than during winter…
Paddy-O, what I was saying is that the Earth itself is no closer to the Sun during summer. It is just that the hemisphere you happen to be in is tilted towards the Sun and is therefore the sun is higher in the sky (and only slightly closer), hence it gets hotter. The position of the Sun creates the temperature change, not the proximity.
The “insignificant few thousand miles” I was referring to was meant to cover the fact that, say, Maine is a couple of thousand miles further away from the Sun in winter as compared to in summer.
My sister thought the entire planet was closer to the Sun, not just the place she happened to be standing.
I think he just heard ‘black hoes’, and went to town based on that misinterpreted statement.
this is absurd