Is 'black hole' politically incorrect?

When folks talk about "black holes," it is either a science term depicting a gravitational field which is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull, or a term denoting a sucking sound.

It is also considered slang for hosting a black project (defense) or a place where traffic is sliently discarded (computer networking). In business, a black hole means any effort which consumes resources without yielding a useful result.

I think the business analogy fits the story in this case.

From the Dallas City Hall blog:

Fox station in Dallas-Fort Worth has the video of the exchange

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster's, is perhaps "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."

Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track. TV news cameras were rolling, after all.

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Is this much ado about nothing? How can "black hole" be considered racially insensitive?

Is Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield racist? Or are Commissioner John Wiley Price and Judge Thomas Jones playing race-baiter?

I have heard "black hole" used on a frequent basis to denote political or business issues where things has gotten lost or nothing viable was produced.

What could be next for these race-baiters? If we call a snowstorm with "whiteout" conditions, is that insensitive? Or how about the White House? Is that insensitive too? Next would be the word "blacklisted."

Could folks like Price and Jones would get off their collective arses and start acting like adults?