Nope, No Racism Here...

A few weeks back (April 19), the Greensboro City Council passed a resolution opposing the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to look into the infamous 1979 "Greensboro Massacre." The issue is complicated, and, as I've argued before, this particular effort is somewhat problematic (though perhaps inevitably so), but when people think like Greensboro's mayor apparently does, something needs to be done. According to the Greensboro News and Record, he approaches the controversy from a rather mystifying perspective:

Mayor Keith Holliday said that the shootings should not be forgotten and could be the focus of further study but that the investigation could create more divisions than it would mend. He said that he believes the shootings had little to do with race, but that the process might make it look as if they did.

Keep in mind that we're talking about Klansmen and Nazis shooting five people to death in broad daylight and full view of news cameras. But race, of course, had nothing to do with it, the mayor tells us; in fact, when you stop to think about it, the people who oppose the Klan and Nazis must be the true racists, since they're the only ones talking about race. Brilliant.