Next Time, Try "Condi's Watermelon"

I think Ben and Jerry's actually missed a great marketing opportunity here. They could have created beer-flavored ice cream in a partnership with Yuengling and everything would have been fine (hey, if anybody can make a flavor like that work, it's these guys).

By the way, the title of this post refers to this story.

Let's see now, the Seattle college professor apologized. Is that enough? No. He agreed to attend "cultural sensitivity training." Is that enough? Still no.

Here's Chelsey Richardson, one of the students who brought the issue to "college officials":

"It's not just the question; it's beyond the question," Richardson said. "It's the roots of where the question came from."

From what I've read on this (this article and another one on The Huffington Post), "where the question came from" was an addled area of the brain matter of the college professor that caused this unfortunate incident. Was mentioning Rice an idiotic thing to do in the question? Yes. Was it racist? I believe not, since this professor apparently had no history of prior behavior like this and so quickly apologized and tried to make amends.

To me, you can just lump this in with Cynthia McKinney screaming about "profiling" last week when she forgot to wear her ID pin and was stopped by a Capitol security person prior to an apparent altercation; Round 2 of the latest "pity party." And of course, the freeper site Newsmax is all up in arms, which isn't surprising really. After all, this involves one of their right-wing icons, and by making noise and pretending to be tolerant, they can appeal to liberals on this also.

You want to talk racism? OK. Start by the emphasis on the looting during Hurricane Katrina. Start with the bona fide issues mentioned in the column by Cynthia Tucker from the McKinney post. Start by the response certainly of this administration and congress to the ongoing neglect of our cities and toss in just about every administration and congress that has preceded it for the last 30 years or so. Basically, start talking about systemic, economic racism, OK? Don't waste my time with the antics of a self-righteous congresswoman (who has done a good job, on balance, I have to admit) or a college professor mentioning a black political leader in an inappropriate manner as part of a math question.

Preoccupying ourselves with the symptom instead of the disease perpetuates the problem. After all, "the roots" are what matter. Isn't that so, Ms. Richardson?