In his 1993 book Beautiful Losers: Essays on the Failure of American Conservatism, the late Sam Francis wrote, "the practice of ruining a white person once a year in honor of Dr. [Martin Luther] King is becoming a national tradition." Sam, who would soon become one of those ruined white persons, mentioned the well-known cases of Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder and Al Campanis, who lost jobs for their theories about blacks and sports. He also described the 1986 case of a Maryland school teacher who was suspended (though not fired in those lax days) for telling someone in a private conversation (correctly) that King was a communist sympathizer.

The pace of ruining white people for allegedly racist remarks has picked up in the last 15 years - and even in the three years since Sam passed on.

As Don Imus, James Watson, Michael Richards, Dave Seanor (former Golfweek editor) and Kelly Tilghman (Golf Channel anchor) can attest, the practice is now much more common than once a year.

Whites on the hard-right and (especially) the race-realist right have long lost jobs or appointments over their racial views or remarks. A brief list would include Mel Bradford, Sam Francis, Chris Brand, Andrew Fraser, Kevin Lamb and Frank Ellis. Academics such as Michael Levin, Philippe Rushton, and the late Glayde Whitney were harassed for their scholarly work on race but managed to keep their jobs because of tenure.

Of course, many would argue that racialists (if they are white) and those on the hard right are repellent and deserve to lose their jobs.