Written by: Beck

I should have plenty of time this weekend while theoretically doing "work," to put together a reasoned, insightful, and thorough response to Answerman on free trade. Inasmuch as it's an issue that I care a lot about and consider myself something of an expert on, I don't want to half-ass it. So for today instead, I've decided to half-ass something requiring much less brain power.

Who here didn't see THIS coming? Omarosa finally got "fired" from the reality show The Apprentice. She somehow managed to hang on through one mind-boggling blow up after another, then, when fired, immediately cried racism. This is wrong on a whole lot of levels (and don't worry, I plan to slog through each and every one), but the most offensive thing of all is that people are actually taking her and this whole "controversy" (which I firmly believe was manufactured out of whole cloth by Omarosa with the aid of a gleefully complicitous sensation-starves media) seriously.

FIRST and foremost, Omarosa deserved to be fired. In one episode she lost over $100 of her team's money. In another episode, she declared that she couldn't do ANY work for her team because she had some sort of injury or illness--I forget the detail because I hate reality TV on principle and get the sordid details second-hand. Compounding that, she went out and played basketball when she was supposedly incapacitated. She was perpetually rude, incompetent, and counter-productive. The only amazing thing is that she lasted as long as she did. While most people have a sinking feeling why she lasted as long as she did, they're terrified to actually voice that opinion, so I'll do it for them. She lasted as long as she did because the show's producers were terrified of firing a black person. They were afraid that unless she horribly screwed up and they had an absolutely clear-cut reason to fire her, they'd be accused of racism. Well, they had their clear-cut reasons, but they got accused of racism anyway.

I often wonder if people like Omarosa and the race-baitors who encourage her realize what a disservice they are doing to the ordinary hard-working black person.

SECOND, as soon as she was fired, she began make wild accusations of racism against her fellow cast members. The first thing she cites?

On ABC's "The View" Wednesday, host Star Jones asked [Omarosa] about an angry scene that aired in an earlier episode of the show. During an argument with [Omarosa], fellow contestant Ereka Vetrini made the comment that [Omarosa] was "the pot calling the kettle black."

Omarosa told Jones that the use of this metaphor was a racial slur and said that she was also called something much worse that was not aired. "I was responding to a much, much worse term than that, that I won't even say because it's so repulsive," she said. [Oh please with the veiled hints. We all know you're getting at the word "nigger." Yes, I actually spelled it out, the most profane word left in American society.] She later added that it was the "N" word and that it was her "worst experience on the show."

I recall some time ago a college athletics coach losing his job over the use of the word "niggardly." It's a word, it has a meaning, it's not racist. The same is true of the pot and the kettle figure of speech. People will use any excuse to make accusations of racism. It's disingenuous and it's sickening.

THIRD, the media is eating it up. Her role on The Apprentice of Designated Bitch, compounded with evidently unfounded accusations of racism (read the article linked above to get the details), are going to make Omarosa rich. She has a line of clothes coming out, a book, and is on the A-list of TV talk shows. There's even talk that she may do TV presidential election coverage.

[Omarosa] has been making talk-show circuit saying that she has been fielding offers to host her own talk show. I really got a lot of interest when I first got on the show, and started getting calls from a lot of different places, she said.

Media encouragement of this sort of behavior only serves to fuel the fire that creates this sort of behavior in the first place.

The only racist that I see here is Omarosa herself. The people enabling her behavior should be duly castigated for their behavior as well.