The most racially charged stories of 2009

THE OSCAR GRANT SHOOTING - To start the year's racial controversy off right, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police in Oakland decided to shoot a black man in the back to bring in the New Year. It turns out that Grant was unarmed, and the family is filing a $25 million dollar wrongful death suit against the police. Good for them. (AP Photo/Family Photo)

NY POST MONKEY CARTOON - Back on February, the New York Post decided to show a picture of two police officers shooting a monkey, who'd died from the gunshot wounds. In front of the monkey's dead body, one of the officers said, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." OK, let's reflect: who is considered to be the primary originator of the stimulus bill? Oh yeah, Barack Obama. Who owns the New York Post again? Oh that's right, they're owned by the same people who own Fox News. I think there might be a pattern here, I'm not sure. (AP Photo/New York Post)

THE SENATE APPROVES SLAVERY APOLOGY WITH REPARATIONS DISCLAIMER - Finally, the Senate decides to apologize for slavery. OK, it only took you 150 years to get around to it. I guess all that pork you put in your bills kept you too bloated to mention one of the greatest crimes against humanity in the history of the world. But it turns out that a half-hearted apology is the most they were willing to offer, making it clear that the apology makes no statement about reparations, which denies the multi-trillion dollar wealth transfer that took place as a result of denying land, opportunities and wealth to millions of people of color. Isn't that like saying, "I'm sorry my family stole your possessions, but I'm not giving anything back. Oh, by the way - we shall overcome and all that good stuff. Let's hold hands now and host a Martin Luther King benefit dinner together." Since the fake apology has been issued, perhaps we'll get a real one in another 150 years.

THE HENRY LOUIS GATES CASE - "The professor and the cop" was probably the silliest incident in history to ever hold the national spotlight. They say it's not what you know, it's who you know. Well apparently, buddies of President Obama can tempt him into ruining an effective press conference on a critical national issue to help settle a beef between a two men with really big egos. Obama's decision to throw grease on the grease fire only made the story last longer than it should have. It all ended with a beer on the White House lawn. We all must have been drinking to think that this story deserved to be front page news for an entire week. The creation of racial controversy is certainly in the eyes of the beholder - we saw race in the Gates case, and that's what made it racial. (AP Photo/Demotix Images, B. Carter, File)

THE TEA PARTY PHENOMENON - The Tea Party protests were effectively master pieces of political puppetry that did a good job of taking advantage of the latent racism in America. Judging from America's reactions to Michael Vick and OJ Simpson, we all know that it's very easy to get people riled up over an "uppity negro." Obama became the target and the tea parties didn't stop. Personally, I was hopeful that they would actually serve tea; they might have been more effective that way. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

GLENN BECK CALLS OBAMA A RACIST - A few months ago, Glenn Beck, for some ridiculous reason, decided to call President Barack Obama a racist. This led to open gang warfare between Beck and ColorofChange.org. The first blow was when Color of Change killed off a bunch of Fox News corporate sponsors, costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. The second blow was when Fox News went after Van Jones, the Green Jobs Czar for Obama and one of the founders of ColorofChange.org, for being affiliated with left wing extremists. Jones eventually resigned from the Obama Administration. (AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Alan Berner)

KANYE WEST IS A JACKASS - I hope we can agree that Kanye West's decision to sprint up on stage and take the microphone out of the hands of a petite little white woman gives off the wrong image to America. But beyond that, it makes Kanye look like a complete ass. Kanye also forgot that America is a country that has historically laid the wrath of hell on any black man accused of hurting a white woman. That led to a horribly racist backlash on the Internet from people wanting Kanye's head on a platter. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow,File)

JOE WILSON "YOU LIE!" - Rep. Joe Wilson from South Carolina, decided that it would somehow make sense to turn President Obama's State of the Union Address into an episode of "The Gong Show." During Obama's speech, Wilson committed arguably the lowest class act ever in the halls of Congress by screaming "You lie!" at the President of the United States. This was a first in American history and it was probably not a coincidence that it happened to our black president. Obama's presidency is turning into a political civil war, as our nation fights for its soul. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

SONIA SOTOMAYOR A WISE LATINA - During her confirmation hearing to become the first Latino member of the Supreme Court, it was unearthed that Justice Sotomayor somehow felt that it was ok to be proud of her Hispanic heritage (shame on her!). During several speeches, Sotomayor stated that "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion." By jumping on this harmless statement, it was clear that the conservatives were grasping for straws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, FILE)

HBCUs CROWN NON-BLACKS AS HOMECOMING QUEEN - Both Kentucky State University and Hampton University decided that the best black woman on campus was actually a white woman. Well, not quite. But they did break long-standing tradition by choosing non-black homecoming queens. Should black women feel offended by this or step their games up? I plead the fifth on that one. (Photo courtesy Joi Louviere)

BLACK COLUMBIA PROFESSOR PUNCHES WHITE COLLEAGUE - When I heard that prominent Architecture Professor Lionel McIntyre punched out his colleague after a racially-heated conversation, I figured that this incident might reflect negatively on his performance review. The case sent shockwaves through academia, as we all suddenly realized that we might need boxing lessons to get our point across. I guess having beer during racial conversations doesn't always work to our benefit. You hear that Barack?

THE HEATHER ELLIS CASE - I found myself in the middle of a national firestorm (so what's new?) with the case of Heather Ellis, a 23-year old black woman who was facing up to 15-years in prison in an incident derived from cutting in line at a Wal-Mart. Heather eventually took a plea on two misdemeanors, but what was most interesting was that the trial unearthed some shady behavior on the part of Wal-Mart when it came to the fact that they "just happened" to destroy the videotapes showing Heather being assaulted by the same police officer who'd been fired from his previous job for sexual harassment. At least she didn't go to jail and I swear I'll never cut line at Wal-Mart ever again. (AP Photo/Corey Noles, Dexter Daily Statesman)

TIGER WOODS - Tiger's list of affairs with half of the white American female waitress population didn't start off as a racial incident, but the writing was always on the wall. Tiger's "brother pass" had been revoked long ago, but the number of women and the fact that none of them were even the least bit "Caublinasian" got the whole country stirring. Black women were offended that they were not invited to be on the list of the Tiger's women and Glenn Beck decided, for some reason, that Tiger Woods' should be compared with OJ Simpson. There would never have been such a comparison to OJ had Tiger been white. No one compared Elliot Spitzer to OJ Simpson. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

CBC GOES AFTER PRESIDENT OBAMA - Breaking rank with the majority of African-Americans, the Congressional Black Caucus decided to go after President Obama. Threatening to block key Democratic initiatives, the CBC has a bone to pick with the fact that the president has not shown a strong commitment toward dealing with the wealth and employment gaps in the African-American community. Till now, taking on "Train Obama" has been a losing battle for almost anyone; just ask Tavis Smiley, Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright. But with unemployment rates that are 50% higher than white Americans, the black community has reason to expect Obama to do more than his predecessors. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)