"It is true that Khallid's words hurt many people's feelings. But when his words become emblematic of racism and the acts and deeds of powerful government officials, when they become mere business-as-usual, something is wrong somewhere. Dr. Khallid Abdul Muhammad never stopped a car driven by whites. He never forced the occupants out of their vehicles to lie face down in the mud at the point of a gun. He never passed a bill that condemned the poor to more wretched poverty, homelessness or hunger. He never consigned brilliant young minds to shuttered and and dilapidated ghetto schools. He never commanded the bombing of an Arab, African or Caribbean nation to divert attention from a scandal in his bedroom. We react to his words because they spring from a deep well of rage that exists in millions of black hearts. To ignore that rage and focus on one man's words is to turn a deaf ear on their real meaning."