It appears that a lot of folks (especially sports-talk radio hosts, a species of which I am a recovering member) have their shorts in a wad over the recent comments made by Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker. To recap in case you have not heard about the controversy, Baker on Sunday was talking to some reporters and began musing about what he believes is the superior ability of black and Latin players to perform under hotter summer conditions.

"It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people because most of us come from heat. You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine. Right? We were brought over here for the heat. Isn't that history? Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don't see brothers running around burnt," said Baker, who will be managing the National League team in next week's Major League Baseball All-Star game. He added, "That's a fact. I'm not making this up. I'm not seeing some brothers walking around with some white stuff on their ears and noses."

Now, I happen to be a white person. And according to the outraged mic-jockeys, I'm supposed to be apoplectic about this. The problem is, I'm just not. And for the life of me, I can't understand how people get so ratcheted up over stuff like this.

There are a couple of issues to examine here.

First, regardless of the dubious truth value of these statements, is it so outrageous to even talk about such a thing? My experience has been that it's generally only newspaper guys and those who have a stake in race-baiting who get overly excited about these types of comments. In real America, conversations take place along these lines between regular black and white folks every day without anyone blowing a gasket. Why is it considered so far beyond the pale to even discuss the question? I mean, even if it turns out that there's no real difference, does one have to be a raving racist to notice the simple fact that there aren't many black people in Minnesota and not many white people in Haiti? Is it really so ghastly to suggest the mere possibility that light skinned people live in cold northern nations while dark skin people live in warm southern nations for some reason other than sheer coincidence? Even if it is merely coincidence, is the pure, empirical evidence even beyond discussion?

The fact is, out of curiosity, I've asked a particular question to nearly every African-American friend I've ever had: Why aren't there any black people in hockey? Each of them to a one has answered the question in the exact same way: "It's too damn cold out there." Of course, the answer comes with a laugh, and I know that every black person reading this right now is laughing as well. Which I think is why I haven't been hearing too many African-American who have been outraged by Dusty Baker's comments. To many folks of all races, the fact that some groups seem to do better than others in certain weather is simply seen (rightly or wrongly) as self-evident.

The people who are outraged, it appears, are some white folks. Most of whom have microphones or newspaper columns. Which brings me to my second observation: Most of these guys are feigning outrage, not because their racial sensibilities have been grievously offended, but because they feel like they wouldn't be able to get away with saying the same kind of thing. There is some merit to this objection. It's nearly undeniable that a white manager who said the exact same thing as Dusty Baker would already have been fired, no questions asked.

But where the outraged chuckleheads have gone wrong is in their proposed solution to the situation. Most of them want to see Dusty Baker either disciplined or fired in order to rectify the "double-standard" they see being practiced. Because Jimmy "the Greek" lost his job years ago over some comments about how slaves were bred, they see the potential here for some kind of payback. Of course, the situation with "the Greek" was way overblown, which many reasonable people on both sides recognized at the time, though they were drowned out by the shrill caterwauling of the Racism Police. So it seems to me that the idiot talk-show hosts would realize that the solution to the problem is not more political correctness, with every side tiptoeing around in fear of saying anything slightly wrong, but rather less political correctness. If these guys had any brains at all (which they don't--trust me, I've worked with most of them), they'd realize that it would be better for someone like Jimmy "the Greek" to not get fired than for Dusty Baker to get fired. It would give all of us a little more freedom and a little less fear of running afoul of the Tolerance and Diversity Nazis.

To Dusty Baker's credit, he hasn't been cowed a bit by the controversy. I wish there were a hundred more like him in this country, so that we might finally be able to get back to actually talking about things, rather than burying our heads in euphemism and over-circumspection, trying so hard not to bruise anyone's feelings that we end up not saying anything.