Racial issues, much?

I've talked about the inherent friction of racial relations in Dallas before. But if anyone was looking for a really solid example of what I was talking about, take a read all about our fine Dallas County Commissioners and their congenial back-and-forth during an otherwise uneventful meeting:

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.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster's, is perhaps "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."

Stunning. Abso-effing-lutely stunning.