Is this man being racist when he refers to Black holes..?

Question

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc1zGRUPztc

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.

Answer 1

No, it's just that someone else is too used to being a victim.

Answer 2

Um... no, he just wasn't thinking. i think people are too sensitive to this kind of thing, but i guess as long as it COULD be taken offensively he shouldn't have said it.

Answer 3

I'm getting a little tired of ignorant, over-sensitive blacks who think that any use of the word 'black' must refer to them. This reminds me of the hoohaw they raised a few years ago over someone who used the word 'n i g g a r d l y', (I had to space it out, because apparently Yahoo is being politically correct, too) a word whose origins have absolutely nothing to do with the insulting 'n' word. The guy actually lost his job over it, IIRC, and only because his vocabulary included a word that SOME people are unfamiliar with. This is garbage. I would not have apologized. In fact, I would have demanded an apology from those who challenged the term "black hole", which is also perfectly legitimate, for suggesting that I would be racially insensitive. There ARE people to whom the 'n' word is aptly applied, and sometimes, they hold county government offices. Thankfully, they rarely, if ever, rise higher.

Answer 4

its a good idea to avoid using the words black or white when linking up words or descibing things

Answer 5

Commissioner Price needs to get a life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon. The term "Black Hole" comes from the fact that, at a certain point, even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light) is unable to break away from the attraction of these massive objects. This renders the hole's interior invisible or, rather, black like the appearance of space itself.....

Answer 6

Holy S#!T!  What's next.  the word black being deleted from our vocabulary for a select group of people?  This stuff stems from people's ignorance.  The ones who are not smart enough to know of 'black holes' or too sensitive because it struck a chord.

I think one of the answers to this post says it best:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 7

Um. That's not racist at all. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin. This is ridiculous.

A black hole sucks everything into it. Therefore if paper is disappearing it's being sucked into the black hole.

If the correct term for something that sucked stuff into it was a white hole, that's what he would have said. But it's not. It's a black hole. As in the color black. Nothing to do with skin pigment.

People are ridiculous nowadays. You can't say anything without someone claiming that it was racism.

Get over yourself. No one cares what color your skin is anymore.

Answer 8

No, of course not!  It's a scientific word and people need to get off this attitude! They need to get a life.

Answer 9

its a term of speech, but hey in this day and age anything can be termed as racism, i asked for a black coffee in a shop and was told i should ask for a coffee without milk, because i was offending a shop worker who was of African decent, wish he had asked me for a white coffee was i supposed to  say sorry sir will that be a coffee with milk!!!!

Answer 10

No.

Answer 11

I got a great laugh out of this even before I saw the video.  You really put it well.  Some of us jump before we are burned.

The same thing happened over the use of ********* which means grudging in giving or spending and does not come from the word ***** which means black, as does noir.  My black mascara is labeled black, *****, noir.  I have black eye lashes in any language.

I am Jewish. (adjective)  I did a search on Jew (noun) and was told by the search engine:  warning, this term may be offensive to others.

Let's not go overboard, learn our science and improve our vocabularies.

TALK ABOUT POLITICALLY CORRECT.  WHENEVER I USED THE NOUN, N---RO AS THE COLOR, IT WAS CHANGED TO ******** WHEN I CHECKED THE PREVIEW.  JEW WASN'T CHANGED.  SHEESH.

Answer 12

What a victim mentality!!  And what a show of complete ignorance.  A black hole is a scientific term for a collapsed star.  How idiotic!  Price should be recalled on grounds of complete and utter stupidity.