There is no institutionalized racism in America

Got that? There is no racism in America. Unless, of course, you are the assistant attorney general in New Jersey. But that's the only time. From the "letters to the editor" section of today's NY Times:

An Objection to Hip-Hop Coverage

Q. Why does The Times devote as much space as it does to covering rap and hip-hop? Indeed, one might ask why it gives any coverage at all, but I won’t go that far. It would seem that the audience for this type of ephemera is not generally likely to be reading The Times, though I have been wrong before.

More to the point: while rock criticism may have seemed like a silly venture when it started, considering the thinness of the material, it would seem like deconstructing Beethoven and Rilke when compared to analyzing the trite, repetitious, crude, and juvenile stuff that is the mass of hip-hop.

— Peter G. O’Malley, assistant U.S. attorney, District of New Jersey

At least he comes up with a fairly polite way to say "blacks don't read." Unbelievable. Perhaps with all the hubbub going on about the US Attorney firings, Mr. O'Malley concluded that know was the appropriate time to issue his brilliant missive.