The big story leading the news all week around my way is about a caricature of local politico Nina Turner depicted as Aunt Jemima in the designated black newspaper, The Call and Post. The issue being debated isn't whether Turner is right or wrong, but whether or not it's racist to call her an Aunt Jemima, suggesting she is something of a white accomadationist. Meanwhile, back off the corner, a pervert gets sentenced for his attempt to single-handedly exterminate black women from the inner-city, And the black Coonerati are up in arms over a political cartoon.

Welcome to Cleveland.

For those of you who don't know--and why would you? -- The Call and Post used to be called the Blood and Guts by many, known more as guide to Who Shot Bootney In The Foot? than a reliable newspaper of any stripe. The kind of paper that spelled George Bush's name wrong above the fold, and the ink came out in your hands. Where stories would be continued on page 33, and most often, there was no page 33. Like that. For years. Some time ago, boxing promoter Don King bought the newspaper, then purchased Microsoft Word, a laptop and a few other 20th Century technological innovations to get the vernarable Post on track, more or less. No disrespect to my folks who work there, but beyond the funny papers and the infamous Nite Out page where you and your jump-off can pose with a snifter of half-price Hennessy at Bigger's Nightclub, the paper is virtually unreadable. Stil. I famously told the former editor John Lenear (RIP) that I wouldn't spank my dog with the Call and Post. That accessment still stands. At least it did, until this cartoon.

The editorial cartoon may be the first cogent commentary in the recent history of this rag. It is, after all, relevant, and the Call and Post has struggled with relevancy for years. But everyone is up in arms about it for the wrong reasons. Whether or not the paper should have called Turner Aunt Jemima, however, is irrelevant, but let's argue about it anyway, right?

This tempest is the kind of black on black coonage white media loves -- loves to see high-falootant Darkies argue over that which does not matter.  Because in the meantime the third most undereducated city in America is like Pompeii in the last days -- everyone is packing up and moving to the suburbs en masse to escape the stench of rotting infrastracuture .... at least.... you HOPE that's what it is.

Is the rendering racist and misogynistic, as the one writer put it? No. It's everything political commentary is supposed to be: pointed, biting and provacative. The Call and Post finally has something it has rarely ever had: a point. The editorial writing sucks, but this picture is worth a thousand words. Bravo, I say. Job well done. Everything does not have to be about uplifting Da Race. What about you?

Do you think the Call and Post was out of pocket for calling Nina Turner an Aunt Jemima?

People that know me will tell you I love a good media-manufactured brouhaha as much as the next media meatball, but the tempest behind the Heather Ellis case, with calls for you to take a day off your good job and go march or whatever, has come to a boil today. The Internet is outraged at the audacity of this latest racial injustice.

Uh-huh.

So that means it's time for me to jump in the fray.

As the story goes, preacher's daughter and med-school prospect Heather Ellis cut in line at a Walmart somewheres in Missouri to join her cousin to make a few purchases, and was rebuffed by others in line as well as the cashier. Police were called, Ellis was arrested and could be facing between three and 15 years in prison. Oh, by the way—she is also alleged to have assaulted two police officers during the fracas.

I'm sorry—did I bury the lead?

Yeah, I did.

Colleague and homeboy Money Watkins was on Tom Joyner's radio show discussing the Heather Ellis case with Roland "BeefJerkyGate" Martin in the context of the latest plot by Da White Man to keep down the Da Race. The problem is, Roland thinks it's OK to throw 'bows on the cops. He said "[hitting the cops] was the "C" outcome in an an incident that had an "A, B and C" or somesuch Negro jibberish, like he's putting the knowledge on you. Money noted that Joyner is sponsored by Walmart and seemed reticent to bite the hand that feeds him.

Really?

I also think Joyner can peep game—there are not enough facts here by a long-shot for the popes of blackness to don the cape, and cowl and ride.

Money Watkins expected you, Joyner, Michael Baisden, Nipsey Russell and all truly black people to mount up and join him in some protest on the stairs of the halls of justice today, but slow down, Jim Shoe. Before you spend your good money on T-shirts and mixtapes, pump your brakes and let me put some game in your ear.

Internet activism is almost always suspect because everyone has an opinion, but rarely does anyone have full possession of the facts. Ever. When six troubled young black men were going to be over-sentenced for assaulting another student, it somehow got connected to the fact that someone hung a noose on a tree. These facts were not in anyway related, but it made for sexy subject lines and blog-fodder for all the usual suspects to exploit and hop on board for their close-up. Back at the ranch, the boys are on BET throwing up faux-gang signs and on MySpace with mouthfuls of your donated money. For all the marching and lofty talk, today, those boys are still effed up in the game. I told Tom to his face: It don't matter that you use the radio and Internet to rally folks if everyone is wrong. We can't co-sign everyone just because they are black.

This gets to Heather Ellis.

See, as it happens, it's merely impolite in civilized society to cut in line, but it is illegal to assault a police officer in all 50 states. Still. I know—there's a black man in the White House. But even if you are buddies with B-Rock, you don't have a license to lunch out on the police. Sorry. Money Watkins is my man, 50-grand, and he knows it. But even the best of us get it wrong sometimes. This could be such a time. Heather Ellis may be a preacher's daughter with no previous record. But if witness reports are to be believed, she's not that innocent.

Heather Ellis is not being tried for cutting in line at Walmart. It's a sexy, Gina Macauley-esque header, but it isn't accurate. Heather Ellis is being tried for allegedly assaulting two police officers. A plus B don't equal C, or whatever math SuperDome would have you trying to figure. Whatever the police reaction—Ellis may have been wrong right out the gate. Sometimes when you are wrong, you buy a ticket to a ride you have to stay on 'til the end. Ellis needs to ride that ride alone, and we need to let a court sort that out. If every black person would just try keep their own nose clean, we'd put the Al and Jesse out of business.

Everything is not about race, and when you go hard on Da White Man and the truth comes out in the rinse, it'll make it harder to get at him when he's actually effing up.

There seems to be some controversy as to who brought down Nidal Malki Hasan, the Fort Hood Shooter: the doe-faced white cop or the brother cop on-scene. Why is it that when you have two certified heroes -- one black, the other one white -- it always seems like we celebrate the white one first and loudest. I heard about Sgt. Munley taking down the shooter off the wire a few minutes before I did the "Barbershop" last week, but didn't mention her because I've learned to wait on better reporting around some incidents. Her face and her story seemed too made-for-TV.

This is the kind of thing that white people say doesn't matter, but it does. When there are two heroes and one of them is black, why can't we seem to get the story straight? Why does race color the narrative of a story? Why does it matter?

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I'm a big fan of K. Danielle Edwards' blog, where she muses about black moms, black marriage and generally basks in the glow of her successful nuclear family. It's hard to hate on someone who has found love and can make it work -- I know Danielle, so I know she deserves it. But I was taken aback by her recent post where she tables the thesis that single dads are really just, you know, glorified babysitters. That they don't have to put in the time and effort that married men do.

I spend a chapter in my book "The Denzel Principle" on baby-mama drama and father's rights. I don't know how we quantify the worth of single dads to begin with, but let's give it a try.

If the measure is by quantity of time spent, I think her point is a no-brainer. You get to spend more time with your kid when they live in the house, obviously. But when you are the non-residential parent and have scheduled visitation or you have shared custody of your kid half-time, then the time you spend is more precious and meaningful because you don't take it for granted.

Not for nothing, the time you spend having to check up on the shack-ups, Penis-of-The-Week, other bedroom transients and step-fathers should also be figured into the equation. Sometimes, your child's mother makes good choices and the new person in her life becomes a valuable addition to the family structure. Most times, he is a crank who, at some point or another, will have to be put in check.

Also, glorified babysitters don't constantly have to have their rights enforced. Women think because they may have residential custody, that they have unilateral shot-calling capability. They don't. Often, they need to be dragged back to remind them that shared parenting is exactly that, and no one parent can call shots willy-nilly. When arguing about the children, married men don't have to do that. They just nod, say "yes, dear" and go pretend to fix something.

Single fathers also have to keep the child's school on notice, so they don't think you are one of those absentee black fathers that gets so much press. You end up dealing with their sexist and racist presumptions, having to constantly remind them to make sure you get a copy of report cards and the like.

When you take everything in total, small wonder single dads want to be recognized. Because married fathers are just live-in sperm-donors and nannys, biding time until they, too, are on the outside looking in.

Single fathers are not glorified babysitters. They are men every bit as worthy of the title of father, and they face a lot more obstacles and prejudices to be good fathers to their children.