Hmm … that would make a good category.

The story that’s making the rounds is about a white woman who was accosted by African American teenagers because she was wearing a tee-shirt that reads “Obama is my slave.”  It’s embellished with all sorts of details–the “victim” is a 25-year-old graduate student from Manhattan.  Oh, and the girls cursed her and pulled the I-Pod buds out of her ears!  They spit in her face and pushed and shoved her!

I call bullshit.

The source of this “story” is the person who designs and sells the tee-shirt.  He sent out a press release alleging that the woman is going to sue him for the trauma she underwent.  In fact, the first thing she did after the attack was contact his store!

And the newspapers have run with the story.  Nobody has been able to contact the alleged victim.  The account of the attack came solely from the tee-shirt designer.

But the story is just too good, too hot to pass up, I guess.  Because it fans the flames.  White people often talk about people of color seeing racism where it doesn’t exist.  What is less-frequently talked about are the hoaxes in which scary people of color hurt poor unsuspecting white people.  Because both of these viewpoints feed into and are reinforced by the majority view.

The Tawana Brawley case is often brought up as an example of how black people use allegations of imaginary racism.  But you don’t hear much talk about Charles Stuart or Susan Smith, even though both of those cases are more recent.  Stuart, you may recall, claimed black guys abducted and murdered his pregnant wife.  Smith claimed black guys abducted her children.

Anyway, the asshole tee-shirt designer is getting his 15 minutes.