Sometimes, serependity will result in the right thing turning up at the right time. I have been mulling Debra Dickerson's politics, and what bothers me about them, for a while now. Then, I noticed a link about Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, a participant on Donald Trump's reality television show at a blog that is new to me, Funk Digital. Though I don't watch the show, I read the article. She was 'fired.'

NEW YORK - Fired "Apprentice" Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth — hated by some of her fellow cast members — got plenty of love Thursday at Ebony magazine's awards luncheon.

Manigault-Stallworth, who was "fired" on March 4, was the most polarizing of the 16-member cast, frequently arguing with some of the other women on the NBC reality show, in which contestants vie for real estate mogul Donald Trump's favor and "the dream job of a lifetime" as his yearlong protege.

After her "firing," the 30-year-old claimed former contestant Ereka Vetrini had called her the "n-word." Vetrini has vigorously denied the allegation, as have executive producers Mark Burnett and Trump.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Manigault-Stallworth, a former political consultant, said her experience showed the problems of racism in corporate America.

"Both of those gentlemen weren't there, so I find it ironic that they would be so emphatic that something did not happen."

I don't know. Yes, the two words and contraction that so many people are afraid to use. I don't know whether Manigault-Stallworth is telling the truth or not. I suspect that we would never have heard about any problems with racism on the show if she had been successful. Then, her comments would likely praise the 'suits' and the other contestants. Go along to get along, you know. I believe the connundrum therein is the problem with Debra Dickerson's belief that racism has declined, if not disappeared. She is mistaking reluctance to acknowledge their encounters with racism by upwardly mobile African-Americans for the actual absence of racism. When I hear people of color say racism is 'over,' I know they know better but are claiming otherwise, either because of self-deception or opportunism. The evidence of continuing discrimination is all around them, both macro and micro. The same black activist funded by Right Wing Foundations who goes on television claiming discrimination ended sometime in the 1960s has been racially profiled by the police. The Hispanic Republican who says the unemployed are merely lazy has family descended from people here before there was a United States who can't get decent jobs. So, why do some people do it? The rewards — money, courtship by the media and approval from white conservatives.