Far be it for me to question the man’s intelligence, but has he seriously never heard the expression before? He seriously thinks it’s some sort of racial remark?

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. 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.”

How the hell is it “racially insensitive”? It’s an analogy based on the scientific object and its use is listed in the dictionary. Can we get any more politically correct?

Update: Price is quite an interesting guy based on what I’ve found. Be sure not to miss KwanzaaFest 08. It’s being promoted by “Our Man Downtown”. 6 terms? Seriously, Dallas? The best you can do is a guy who thinks “black hole” is racist?