They're Perfectly Reasonable People

Shorter James Joyner: I can't understand why tea-partiers are afraid to visit certain parts of DC. It can't be racism because I'm afraid of those areas too, and they have no reason to go to these places anyway.

Shorter Megan McArdle: The tea-party warnings about DC are overwrought but not racist because they're right about the crime.

Underneath the bullshit is fear. Fear is understandable because we have been manipulated into racial disputes by the ruling elite for centuries, but if you don't know or won't admit what it is, you will try to find stupid and harmful (to other people) ways of dealing with it. Admit that you're afraid of Black people or shut up about how reasonable your fear of Black people is.