my little brother has never, to my knowledge, called anything racist. when he switched last year to a dc public skool, most of my family braced to see how he'd manage: surely the transition from a jewish skool -- even accounting for a stopover in a only-mostly-white private skool -- would be tough. but he adapted immediately. wilson suits him far better than either of the other two. he's got a group of friends so diverse my most pc friends would envy him, and effortlessly, because as far as i know, he doesn't think about race. without disregarding differences, he seems to render them unimportant. as ideally they would be across a chess board, or while watching anime.

that's why when he IMed me this evening and referred to a post columnist as a "racist bastard" he knocked me off-balance. but he certainly wasn't overstating. even (especially?) for a mainstream publication, this is egregious. how could they publish an opinion piece, "They Should Behave Better" this rambling, racist, and badly thought out?

first paragraph: Sometimes, watching students coming and going from Coolidge High School, I wonder if Americans would have supported the goals of the civil rights movement if they'd known these children would be among its inheritors.
last paragraph: I can think of no more compelling reason to insist that the kids from Coolidge -- and black kids everywhere -- adhere to certain standards of behavior.

in between: myriad reasons this author should be thrown through a plate glass window. and further evidence that my family knows better than the media.