Jim Crow's Tavern

Joe Barry Carroll, a former NBA All-Star with the Hawks, filed a Federal lawsuit Wednesday because he and his friend were asked to leave the Tavern at Phipps  because they declined the staff's request to give up their seats at the bar to two women. It's the South—not that big of a deal, right?

Now insert race: Carroll and his friend are black, and the two women were white. According to the lawsuit, there were several white males sitting at the bar, but none were asked to give up their seats for the ladies, while staff members repeatedly targeted the two black males to stand up after they declined.

Sounds abhorrent. But racism, like rape, is sometimes a tough crime to prove. You need to know intent and if nobody throws out a slur, it's hard to differentiate between two African-American men who were unfairly targeted to stand up for white women and then removed or two buttholes who wouldn't abide by restaurant policy. And since the incident happened two years ago, witnesses' accounts may not be quite as sharp.

If Carroll and his friend were discriminated against because of his color, they justly deserve as much money as the courts allow. And forcing anyone to give up their seats after they decline is just bad business. But yelling "racists!" can be as problematic as yelling "rapists!"— just ask Mike Nifong.