Is "black hole" a racially insensitive term?

[Ninja]

Apparently to some. From the City Hall Blog at the Dallas Morning News:

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.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term.​

Judge Jones should be very glad that the central collections office has not become a white hole, a theoretical object that ejects matter from beyond its event horizon, rather than sucking it in. It wouldn't be fun for Dallas to find itself so near a quasar.

Anyone wanting to know a good deal about black holes should read the excellent new book, The Black Hole War, by Leonard Susskind, which has just been released. I'm in the middle of it, and the book's a fascinating tour of modern physics written for the layman. It's just been marvelous so far.

SciGuy: Is "black hole" a racially insensitive term?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

SciGuy: Is "black hole" a racially insensitive term?

Only to tards and those LOOKING to be insulted. I know from now on when some black guy says anything about a "whitewash" I will scream racism.

 

[editec]

Commissioner John Wiley Price truly needs to get a life.

 

[manifold]

In the context of the story, I'd say probably not...unless he emphasized "black." But since there's no mention of emphasis, I'll assume this is not the case.

 

[Gungnir]

Stupidity.

Whitewash? Come on RGS, don't fall into that game.

 

[nomdeplume]

Niggardly?
Tar baby? Even If you read the shithole of of ignorance that wikipedia is, they even assert the word "at sometime became offensive".

Ya, it became offensive as soon as ignorant blacks thought the term had something to do with race, which it never did.

Even the word ****** itself was never pejorative. It was only turned pejorative by blacks and related cranks who want to come up with new words for themselves-- colored, black, african-american, negro.

Seems blacks just like to complain. Must have learned it from the eternal caterwaul of Jews.

I'm off to head to the store and demand all the racist "crackers" be taken off the shelf.

 

[Wow]

It's not a racist term, it's being used to imply rich white people are calling black women "black holes".
It's a promotion for racial hatred against white people.
It's all about getting cracker's money!

 

[RIGID_087]

the term Black Hole is used because a black hole is a power so great that NOTHING can escape from it...not even light...hence the name black hole lol

 

[bobmilin]

I feel sorry for the intelligent blacks when some black idiot acts up but they need to respond instead of saying nothing.
Bottom line blacks are pissed about all the advancement in the world coming from white people and how they were made slaves because whites looked at them as a inferior race.

 

[Your Overlord]

I'm confused did you say "black holes" or Black Hoes"?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I feel sorry for the intelligent blacks when some black idiot acts up but they need to respond instead of saying nothing.
Bottom line blacks are pissed about all the advancement in the world coming from white people and how they were made slaves because whites looked at them as a inferior race.

Except for that small part where blacks STILL enslave other blacks and the original black slaves were SOLD to European whites by OTHER blacks. Well not to mention there has been no white slave owners since 1865.

Wait I see your point. Can I complain now that Englishmen were forced in to near permanent bound service up until the late 1700's and then demand reparations?

How about the Chinese , Irish and religious sects forced into near or complete slavery, do we give them Reparations too? As for grudges, I think the Indians have a more viable one since we were waging war on them up till at least 1890. almost 40 years AFTER slavery ended. Perhaps they deserve reparations?

 

[Poppi]

The only way the term blackhole can be racially insensitive is if the person who uses that term is predjudice deep down inside themselves.

 

[Your Overlord]

I think Rome Owes every Christain Reparations
and Egypt owes the Jews
The US owes tha blacks and
so on
so lets just call it even

 

[bobmilin]

The only way the term black hole can be racially insensitive is if the person who uses that term is prejudice deep down inside themselves.

Are you kidding me? The term black hole has nothing to do about race it can never be used that way even if the leader of the KKK said it.
You need to understand what a black hole is and how it is used in a analogy.

Anyone who thinks that a black hole is a racist term is just a complete idiot plain and simple.
That's why this story made national news because of the stupidity of the black man that said it was racist and the stupidity of the black judge who asked for an apology.

A black hole is a star that has died and has collapsed and the gravity is so strong that light itself can not escape which is why it is called a black hole.

When someone uses it in a analogy they are talking about sending something in never to return.
Now if your a idiot and you think its racist then that's your problem not the person who said it.

 

[Skull Pilot]

it's obvious that we need a new word for the color black. Let's just add it to the list of perfectly good words banned by the PC crowd and move on how about

ebony, pitch-black, pitch-dark, pitchy, raven, sable, coal, charcoal

there surely must be a nonoffensive word for black.

 

[editec]

Words have no power but that we we assign them in our hearts, folks.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Words have no power but that we we assign them in our hearts, folks.

Yet we had a poll to determine if a certain word should remain blocked for no apparent reason. And as I recall a few people voted to keep it blocked.

 

[Wow]

I'm confused did you say "black holes" or Black Hoes"?

You are confused.

Commissioner John Wiley Price is saying black women are "black holes".
Price should be fired for making these sexist comments.
This should be treated as a hate crime!

 

[Your Overlord]

You are confused.

Commissioner John Wiley Price is saying black women are "black holes".
Price should be fired for making these sexist comments.
This should be treated as a hate crime!

take it easy
don't use my little joke to prop up your position

 

[Skull Pilot]

If this type of hypersensitivity keeps up we'll have to be careful when ordering blackened red fish at Legal Seafoods. We would be insulting Blacks and Native Americans in one fell swoop

You won't be able to say "there's a nip in the air " for fear of insulting a Japanese person.

Just think **** and Span will have to be taken off the market because the name insults Latinos

The real funny part about this story is that said insulted Black guy when it was finally made clear that the term black hole was about cosmology and not race said "It doesn't matter if what he said was racist. What matters is that I'm offended." and still demanded an apology