3 Racist Incidents That Weren't Actually Racist

David Howard, an aide to Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony A. Williams, used the word "niggardly" in a discussion with two of his city employees. While his real crime was trying to shoehorn a ten-dollar word into a two-dollar conversation, D.C. employees objected to the use of "niggardly" due to its "racial overtones."

The problem is, "niggardly" isn't even sort of a racist term, it just sort of totally sounds like one. But it really just means "frugal." The contemptuous "N-word" comes from a Latin word meaning "black" and has absolutely nothing to do with "niggard," aside from the fact that both words will likely get you punched in the face if you're overheard saying them in public.

The misunderstanding got so out of hand that Howard was forced to resign, although he eventually got his job back after everyone realized that this was a controversy that could literally be squashed by consulting Merriam-Webster.

You know what sucks? That one department at your company that always messes things up. For Kenneth Mayfield, a county commissioner in Texas, that department was central collections. In fact, he was so frustrated with their habit of losing important paperwork, he opined that central collections "has become a black hole."

Mayfield was, of course, referring to the kind of black hole that is a thing in outer space that eats astronauts and anything else in its path. Judge Thomas Jones, on the other hand, apparently took this reference to mean that central collections had literally turned into a hole filled with black people. Mayfield assured him that it was only a science term, but the judge demanded an apology anyway.

It's a mix-up made all the more hilarious by the fact that the man who made the mistake may literally hold your freedom in his hands someday. Funny!