Another example of political correctness gone wild.

What a country!

When looking for racial oppression in the U.S.A. these days, you have to split hairs and twist the results 99% of the time.

Escuse me while I chant "U.S.A., U.S.A." for the next hour

I'm going to find this man and give him a few black eyes of his own.

Jesus, such stupidity is making my brain melt.

I'm afraid this seems to me to be a big ol' straw man.

This Price character is clearly an idiot, but that doesn't make this an endemic problem. I like to think common sense still prevails from sea to shining sea (or something like that).

One sea is just an ordinary old sea, while the shining sea is obviously the mighty Pacific sea, right Clav????

Or isn't it that black and white?

The objection itself, over anything so ridiculous, is in fact racist.

This is indeed a black day, here we have black on white a story of abused black.
Black holes have been blacklisted (on a black Friday?)
In my black mood my only hope is this is black comedy and not black propaganda or in worst case blackmail.
Has it come so far that black has been blackballed and may only be used by black sheep?
What black-hearted person has made physics equivalent to black magic that black marks any talking of it - from now on we must avert our eyes at blackness not to look into black space.

Black is beautiful.

Surfer @ #5: Trying to start a rivalry over who has the best ocean now, are we, Stan?

My loyalties are divided, having grown up on an island in the Frantic Ocean but having had, in my lifetime, immensely more fun playing in the waters of the Specific Ocean.

For my money, though, for pure Neptunean splendour nothing beats the English Channel, especially that picturesque stretch between Hove and Bexhill-on-Sea.

Office staff were unable to remove the offensive phrase from printed documents because the sensitivity committee had recently banned the use of 'white-out'.

Diana, I disagree. For Mayfield to explain his meaning shows how thoroughly racially brow-beaten he is. Bless his heart. As for Price, he didn't misunderstand or wrongly interpret - no one with enough sense to dress himself COULD HAVE. He simply has a sleeve full of Racial Victim cards and decided it would be fun to play one. Some bloggers call Price and that idiot judge fools. Maybe not. If Mayfield apologizes, he will be the biggest fool of all.

I think snorkmorton is probably right. These guys aren't dumb. Rabble rousers are usually pretty bright (is 'bright' racist in this context --- probably).

'Black holes' should be called 'light-challenged spacetime perforations.' The word 'hole' embarrasses and offends me.

While we're on the subject, isn't 'Duane' an offensively white name to be carting around?

Get thee to the courthouse immediately!

And just to clarify for the excessively moronic (they'll be along to this thread sooner or later, mark my words), the color black is not, electromagnetically speaking, a color - it is the absence of light.

The term 'black hole' refers to an object so massive that its gravity pulls in everything - absolutely everything - that passes within reach - even light. Therefore, the object appears black, although it is not strictly speaking a hole. So as Duane correctly points out, it is actually the 'hole' part of the name which should offend.

While we're on the subject, isn't 'Duane' an offensively white name to be carting around?

It certainly is offensive, because of its association with gun-toting moonshiners bouncing down red dirt roads in '62 Ford pickups in the stereotyped version of the South, quite at odds with my urbane, debonair charm, with a carefully cultivated touch of devil-may-care insouciance thrown in. However, as long as Dwayne* 'The Rock' Johnson is saddled with that name, I think I can duck out of most fights.

And just to clarify for the excessively moronic (they'll be along to this thread sooner or later, mark my words), the color black is not, electromagnetically speaking, a color - it is the absence of light.

Right you are, Dr. D. But even that ("the absence of light") can be given racist overtones if you try hard enough. Let's watch.

* Note the absurd spelling, however. I'll clue him in next time I meet up with him. Sheesh.

JWP thought Mayfield said Black Ho (whore for the Ebonic challenged), then fired back his White Ho comment. He was too proud to admit he was wrong, and defended it by basicly saying anything Black is bad!!!!!!!

Next time I order chili, and a black employee ask if I would like crackers with it, Should I try to get them fired????? After all, it's okay for a white employee to call them crackers, but black employee should call them Saltines.....right???

even that ("the absence of light") can be given racist overtones if you try hard enough.

Pfui, Duane. 'Black' people aren't black anyway - they're brown. And 'white' people? A sort of creamy off-pink. We can give this a positive spin too, for example in the fight against smoking:

"Got a light, buddy?"
"Nope. I'm black - there is an absence of light here!"

OK, so that's a bit of a stretch. But then how this whole 'black' and 'white' thing got started anyway I'll never know. Race is a social construct and nothing more. Just because I have a lighter skin shade than Barack Obama doesn't make me different to him - any more than my orange cat is a different kind to my gray cat.

No such thing as race. We're all just one species - people. Boring I know, but true. It's as simple as brown and creamy off-pink.

Pfui, Duane. 'Black' people aren't black anyway - they're brown. And 'white' people? A sort of creamy off-pink.

Yeah, but that makes sense.

Price is correct of course...our language does reflect our racist history

we need some form of linguistic reparations

i am black and very militant, but i am trying not to divide but include not exclude anyone, in this guy is a joke the poltiican who made a big to do over the commissioner saying a blackhole. i know what is racial and what is not , and this clearly was not anything racial, this dude needs to be removed for being ignorant. he must have just read one black revolutionary book, and think everything with blac in it is black, the one thing is that none of our skin is even black, it is brown, so get deeper, not dumber. so people want to be so pro black, and are not. there was bigger issues at hand that day i am sure, then to worry about a black hole which is scientific as the commisioner said, he should not apolgize for that all, this is one black person who is very pro-black and pro inclusion, there are bigger issues for us to look at then simple wordage like this which had nothing to do at all with race.
this is brother T from chicago

Thank you, Brother T. A fellow red herring fisher, I see.

I'm sure you're as exasperated as I am that nonsense like this diverts so much attention from the problem of real racism.

Very silly people in TX and very entertaining writing!

As far as oceans go, here in the USA, all I can say is, I'd rather swim in an ocean that's 75 degrees than one that's never warmer than 60!

Even if I somehow believed that 'black hole' was a term with racist undertones, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it and demand an apology. I'd go to Mayfield privately and let him know that even though he probably didn't intend to say anything offensive, he shouldn't use the term 'black hole' because it has racist undertones. I mean, that's the classy way to handle something like this.

Or did Price somehow arrive at the conclusion that Mayfield was being deliberately insulting? It just doesn't make much sense.