Speaking of Racism...

... I was just speaking to my midwestern caucasian friend and asked him if he'd seen the first clip that everyone was touting from Monday night's Conan O'Brien debut on The Tonight Show. Here's the clip if you haven't seen it.



Big laughs and applause. It was all over the news the next day. Conan taking a shot at Vice President Biden. I thought it was very funny. And then I thought some more. No one including myself realized that it was a racist joke. Because the butt of the joke was Vice President Gaffe-a-Minute, no one picked up on the racial overtones of the joke.

Think of it this way: what if the nominee was an African-American woman and the Biden voiceover said, "I like fried chicken... and grits... and okra... and watermelon. How many baby daddies do you have?"

I know I may be overanalyzing here, especially in light of the word "racist" being thrown around and used against Judge Sotomayor, and that the subject of ridicule was Biden. But when you stop to think about it,there's a difference between being overly sensitive for the sake of political correctness and being completely desensitized. Just sayin'.