Just when you thought the two younger Wayans brothers were the biggest source of embarrassment for the black community, along comes this month’s Brown Eye. Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price has managed to elevate political correctness and racial hypersensitivity to unprecedented levels.

At a July 7 Commissioners Court meeting about traffic tickets, Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who’s white, offered the observation, “It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole.” That incited an “Excuse me!” from Price (black), who, along with another official, insisted that the term is racist and unacceptable language. Both Price and the other black official demanded an apology from Mayfield.

While Mayfield understandably refused to offer one, he did offer the diagnosis, “Anybody who’s offended by that statement needs serious psychiatric help.” Either that, or the person is channeling Martin Lawrence’s character Tyler from the movie Boomerang.

Later, in an interview with a local TV station, Price expounded on how common words and phrases in the American lexicon reek of racism. “So if it's 'angel food cake,' it's white. If it's 'devil's food cake,' it's black. If you're the 'black sheep of the family,' then you gotta be bad, you know. 'White sheep,' you're okay. You know?"

No, we don’t know. One thing we do know, though, is Chris Rock wants you to stop hacking his comedy bits. What’s next: olive manufacturers are racist because black olives are packed in cans, while green olives come in see-through jars? After all, why can’t the black ones come in a jar? Maybe they want to see outside, too.

Price even went so far as to insinuate that the members of the scientific community who coined the term “black hole” were racist. Price pondered, “Scientists could have just called it a white hole. Why didn’t they?”

Well, the last time we checked, the gravitational pull of such a phenomenon is so strong that light itself cannot escape. By definition, black is “characterized by the absence of light.” Ergo, the term “black hole.” In fact, about the only way a “black hole” could be called a “white hole” is if it received a series of treatments by Michael Jackson’s dermatologist.

We can only wonder how Price feels about African-American scientists who continue to use and promulgate the term “black hole.” Perhaps he considers NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson the Uncle Tom of astrophysics.

The fact is there are plenty of other astronomical terms that could be interpreted as offensive by others if they shared Price’s ridiculously excessive sensitivity. A close cosmological cousin to the black hole is the white dwarf star, but you don’t see Verne Troyer (aka Mini Me from Austin Powers) accusing scientists of prejudice against famous little white people. Of course, he’s probably been too occupied with that whole sex tape thing. Did someone say “Hubble telescope”?

To his credit, though, Price did offer a chromatic compromise of sorts when he queried, “Why didn’t it get lost in a brown hole?” However, that would have meant the parking tickets had been shoved up Price’s ass, which isn’t possible since it’s already occupied by his head.

Some suggest that the solution to the problem over Price’s perception of the astronomical term is to follow Stephen Hawking’s lead and refer to the phenomenon as a “singularity.” Realistically, how many folks know what the hell a “singularity” is, especially among people so obtuse they think the term “black hole” is racist? “Singularity? Didn’t they get bought out by AT&T?”