20091012

Overrated White People

by Marc Lamont Hill

We're celebrating Christopher Columbus today, despite the fact that he was an immoral treasure hunter who merely stumbled upon a region that had already been "discovered" by indigenous nonwhite peoples. A few more overrated white people: Bill Clinton (who - despite bombing Africa and the Middle East regularly, approving the Welfare Reform Bill, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, and "three strikes" litigation - is still regarded as a messianic figure by black folk). Babe Ruth (the beneficiary of smaller playing fields and a segregated league). Tony Romo (who continues to find new ways of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory). Justin Timberlake (who is somehow considered more talented than dozens of black R&B singers). And Paris Hilton (who- wait... what does she do again?).

6S

Marc Lamont Hill is a professor at Columbia University and a Fox News commentator. His six sentences are excerpted (and slightly altered) from his Metro column.