This is too funny. And indicative of the times we live in. A member of Parliament, a black man, scolded the BBC for racism because they asked whether the smoke coming out of the Vatican chimney would be black or white yesterday.

The BBC tweeted:

“LIVE VIDEO: Chimney of Sistine Chapel as conclave votes for #Pope – will smoke be black or white?”

This so enraged MP David Lammy that he tweeted back:

“This tweet from the BBC is crass and unnecessary. Do we really need silly innuendo about the race of the next Pope?”

What?

I love this because it shows two things:
1) A crazy hair trigger on injecting race into any and every issue and conversation.
2) A complete ignorance of not only Church traditions but current events.

After a number of folks pointed out to him that the smoke coming out of the Vatican had nothing to do with race, he apologized by tweeting: “Note to self: do not tweet from the Chamber with only one eye on what you’re reading. Sorry folks, my mistake.”

Maybe next time the Church is looking for a Pope they could have rainbow smoke so nobody gets offended.