PrintJuly 12, 2008
Dallas Co. Commissioner Takes Race Sensitivity to Outer Space
This week’s Idiotic Race Sensitivity Award goes to Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
Dallas County Commissioners are facing a $35 million budget shortfall. And, they hold 618,000 unpaid traffic tickets dating back years. A white commissioner characterized the office responsible for processing the tickets as a “black hole.” Black commissioner and longtime civil rights activist in the Dallas area, John Wiley Price, took offense. The local FOX TV news channel reports that,
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price is sticking to his comments that the term "black hole," which a colleague used, is racist. Price also says language such as "angel food cake" and "devil's food cake" is also racially insensitive.
So what about Darth Vader representing “the dark side” and wearing a black wardrobe?
Price would perhaps have us stop saying things like, “It was pitch black outside that night.” Instead we should substitute, “The absence of nocturnal illuminant ambiance was such that the outdoor environment appeared to be void of any light and resembled the color that represents either the absence of, or complete absorption of, light.”
As for the white commissioner who used the term “black hole,” he clearly should have said, “When tickets are filed in the processing center they disappear as though they were light entering a region of space that has a gravitational field so intense that no matter can escape.”
Kudos to Mr. Price for taking race sensitivity into the last frontier.
