# So, black hole is racist?.... Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 22, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358 "2008-07-22T12:54:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/41 "2008-07-22T23:22:42Z")
What really throws me off is the demand of the substitution “white hole”. So let’s pretend that you’re so stupidly sensitive over any use of the word “black” that you immediately connect it to race regardless of context and attack someone for it. Thus if you think a term is insulting it’s okay to substitute another race? That whole thing is so screwed up on so many levels… ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/42 "2008-07-22T23:28:06Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] I was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. [/QUOTE] I read the news today, oh boy. Apparently, there are four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. Are any black holes? ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/43 "2008-07-22T23:28:54Z")
[QUOTE=Just Some Guy] What really throws me off is the demand of the substitution “white hole”. So let’s pretend that you’re so stupidly sensitive over any use of the word “black” that you immediately connect it to race regardless of context and attack someone for it. Thus if you think a term is insulting it’s okay to substitute another race? That whole thing is so screwed up on so many levels… [/QUOTE] I think the substitution is racist because it seems to imply that the paperwork was lost _because_ of the race of the other commissioner and therefore, has to have gone down a white hole. Also, perhaps the judge agreed because he’s the same one who was in the news a few months ago suing his dry cleaner because his pants were lost – down a yellow hole. This situation is all kinds of stupid and PC and racial sensitivity (awareness) has nothing to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/44 "2008-07-22T23:29:37Z")
**Just Some Guy** : I think there’s a couple of factors in play with that: 1. Throwing it in the perceived racist’s face, i.e. “see, I’ve turned your bigoted language back on YOUR race! How do you feel now, huh?” 2. They don’t care if the substitution just transfers the insult to another race, especially if it’s that of their “oppressors.” “They’re the ones with the power; they can take it. If they can’t, that’s their fault.” The whole situation is still idiotic, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/45 "2008-07-22T23:42:54Z")
[QUOTE=Leaper] **Just Some Guy** : I think there’s a couple of factors in play with that: 1. Throwing it in the perceived racist’s face, i.e. “see, I’ve turned your bigoted language back on YOUR race! How do you feel now, huh?” 2. They don’t care if the substitution just transfers the insult to another race, especially if it’s that of their “oppressors.” “They’re the ones with the power; they can take it. If they can’t, that’s their fault.” The whole situation is still idiotic, of course. [/QUOTE] Well yes, that’s their reasoning but the fact that they can’t see the inherent hypocrisy in it is rather sad. ---
**Author:** ![Li\_l\_Pluck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ee59a6/32.png) [@Li\_l\_Pluck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Li_l_Pluck)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/46 "2008-07-22T23:45:26Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I wonder if the judge really thought Price has a legitimate point, or if his thinking was more along the line of, “Just apologize to him so he’ll shut up and we can move along.” [/QUOTE] Y’know, the possibility that the judge may have been thinking along those lines is certainly an interesting point. And plausible, too, I’d reckon, if John Price has a reputation for being both inordinately thin-skinned and a “troublemaker”. But still, even if that is the case (assuming, of course, that the judge knows what a black hole is and the context in which the other commissioner was using it), his acquiescing to Mr. Price doesn’t reflect very well on him. And what a pity, because, again, stupidity is allowed to rule the day. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/47 "2008-07-23T03:51:53Z")
Per wiki: “a white hole acts as a source that ejects matter from its event horizon”… so that wouldn’t make a very good analogy for a place stuff disappears never to be found again. Stupid cubed. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/48 "2008-07-23T04:02:58Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Wow, that’s some high-level retarded right there. [/QUOTE] How dare you insult the [del]special[/del] / [del]mentally-deficient[/del] / [del]cognitively-challenged[/del] / … OK yeah it’s fucking retarded. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/49 "2008-07-23T04:04:22Z")
This is yet another example of the politically correct deconstruction of the English language. Absolutely absurd. They are _actually_ called “black holes” for a _reason_, which has nothing to do with race. How lame. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/50 "2008-07-23T04:29:46Z")
The correct term would be “African-American holes.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/51 "2008-07-23T05:00:57Z")
Cut price and Jones some slack. They could be products of the inferior inner city schools in America that I hear about, so it might not be their fault that they don’t know what a black hole is. On top of that we all know that in white culture white is good and black is bad, and the black opposition to those inferences has been brought up repeatedly with justification. On the other hand they are more likely idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/52 "2008-07-23T05:46:12Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] When I become Evil Overlord, I will create a system of **Rest Homes For The Terminally Stupid** , so that they can be taken care of and never have to worry about the big bad world outside their doors. Conversely, the rest of us will not be required to dance around their stupidity. [/QUOTE] We have them. Now all we need to do is take away their voting rights and Congress and the White House will be just about perfect. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/53 "2008-07-23T11:18:04Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] The correct term would be “African-American holes.” [/QUOTE] You keep your porn fetishes out of this! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/54 "2008-07-23T12:11:07Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim] Perhaps it was only when the term was recently coined. I found this reference with a quick Google. > **[Black Holes, Quasars - Crystalinks](http://www.crystalinks.com/black_holes.html)** “Prior to that time, the term black star was used occasionally. The latter term appears in an early episode of Star Trek, and was still used occasionally after 1967. This is because some people found the term “black hole” obscene when translated into French or Russian, for example.” [/QUOTE] This is entirely probable. Its certainly not regarded as offensive now, at all, else someone’s got some explaining to do to me! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/55 "2008-07-23T12:59:38Z")
Can we start calling it a Fry Hole? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/56 "2008-07-23T13:25:19Z")
[QUOTE=My Fox] Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price is sticking to his comments that the term “black hole,” which a colleague used, is racist. Price also says language such as “angel food cake” and “devil’s food cake” is also racially insensitive [/QUOTE] .. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/57 "2008-07-23T13:31:06Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] We have them. Now all we need to do is take away their voting rights and Congress and the White House will be just about perfect. [/QUOTE] Also, empty. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/58 "2008-07-23T16:37:11Z")
[The stupidity continues.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-akk3gog34&NR=1) ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/59 "2008-07-23T16:54:22Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] .. [/QUOTE] That makes more sense than the black hole thing. Black=devil, white=angel. I can see it, but it’s really stupid. The black hole thing is just beyond stupid. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358/60 "2008-07-23T17:00:09Z")
You think this is bad, don’t even get him _started_ on the Niger Delta. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-black-hole-is-racist-really/457358.md?page=4)