What a scary place this would be if you actually had to be careful about everything that you did and said. Take for example the Reverend Jesse Jackson's recent difficulty getting the world to understand exactly what he meant. He was was quoted as saying Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was "acting like he's white" for not speaking out more forcefully about a racially charged schoolyard beating in Louisiana. Jackson later told the South Carolina newspaper he did not remember making the "acting like he's white" comment about Obama, who is, by the way, black. It's an interesting place to be, since Jesse says that he is supporting Senator Obama's run for the presidency.
In the world of sports, or the world that surrounds sports, Barry Bonds probably won't be backing off his assessment of the guy who bought his 756th home run ball anytime soon. Fashion designer Marc Ecko has set up a web site that lets visitors vote on three options for the ball: give it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk before sending it to Cooperstown or blast it into space on a rocket ship. "He's stupid. He's an idiot," Barry said. "He spent $750,000 on the ball and that's what he's doing with it? What he's doing is stupid." Please Mister Bonds, couldn't you have exercised your word power just a little more? What about "moronic" or "foolhardy" or maybe even "frivolous"? As long as you have a microphone in front of you, why not make those words count?
After that, who would have guessed that Justin Timberlake would come off as a class act when asked about his former paramour and fellow Mousketeer, Britney Spears? In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Wednesday, he mused aloud about his relationship with Kevin Federline's ex-wife: "We were teenagers," he said.
"Famous teenagers," Winfrey added.
"And I think that's basically the best way to describe what happened to us," Timberlake said. "I think she's a great person. And I don't know her as well as I did."
You know what? I think he means it.
I think you could argue that Obama is just as much white as he is black (or just as much neither), given that his mother was a caucasian from Kansas, and his father was a native of Kenya.
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