What's Black And White And Red-Taped All Over?

When pondering whether politicians are being disingenuous or really are as stupid as they appear, remember that these two are not mutually exclusive. So when Dallas County commissioners squabble over whether the phrase “black hole” includes racist overtones and requires an apology, the mind reels at trying to discern whether this is a case of race bating on the part of the white commissioner, the black commissioner or both.

The context here was the loss or misplacing of files in the Dallas County central collecting office. White commissioner Kenneth Mayfield called the office a “black hole,” black commissioner John Wiley Price “corrected” Mayfield and called it a “white hole” and then “Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.” (Note to the incredulous: judges are elected in Texas.)

A black hole, the Dallas Morning News dutifully reported for its public school educated readership, is "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."

Lest you presume that I, being white, naturally side with Mayfield here, it occurs to me that it may be the case, known to him and his colleagues, that the personnel working at that office are predominantly African Americans, in which case his comment might indeed have been an intentionally elliptical racist innuendo. Of course, that credits the man with significantly more wit and verbal talent than the vast majority of politicians at any level have, but it can’t simply be rejected as a theory. I hasten to add that I know nothing at all about any of these men or about Dallas County’s bureaucracy. I do know something about bureaucratic inefficiency, though, and such knowledge includes the fact that incompetence and indifference are equal opportunity qualities commonly possessed by government employees of all shades. (Wait a minute! When I just said "shade," did I mean... oh, never mind.)

In any case, race bating and posturing, whoever may be at fault here, is a tiresome game. Sadly, however, there must still be a strong market for it among voters, else politicians wouldn’t supply it with such tedious regularity. Personally, I am in favor of politicians acting as idiotically as possible as frequently as possible in public. How else will the public ever come to understand what they (and, perforce, you and I) are paying for?