As the official columnist of Black History Month, I'm obliged to weigh in on at least one racial controversy before my 28 days are up. The problem is that the pickings have been rather slim lately.

There was the infamous comment Chris Matthews made after President Obama's State of the Union speech last month, but it hardly rises to the occasion when you consider it in context: "I was trying to think about who he was tonight," Mr. Matthews said. "It's interesting; he is post-racial, by all appearances. I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."

At best, the comment shows that the MSNBC host has bought into the whole "post-racial" nonsense Mr. Obama's campaign was once so very good at promulgating. Chris Matthews is the kind of Northeastern white liberal who is comfortable using terms like post-racial as if they really aren't devoid of meaning.

Weighing in from the other end of the political spectrum was former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo. A failed candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, he was the first speaker at last week's Tea Party convention to show his true colors:

"[President Obama was elected because] we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote. People who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House."

Oh, the ugliness. But dignifying Mr. Tancredo's old-fashioned nativism and naked appeals to Jim Crow-era racism with a counter-argument feels like a complete waste of time. Some folks like Mr. Tancredo are so far gone that merely acknowledging their rant is to be almost complicit in the spread of their silliest ideas.

Then along came an answer to prayer -- guitarist John Mayer's filter-less Q-&-A in the latest Playboy. It has everything, folks: glib narcissism, impolitic musings on the sexual proclivities of old girlfriends, a novel use of a much frowned-upon racial epithet, a truckload of women-hating in general and a curious, backhanded slap at the prospect of a white blues guitarist dating black women.

Admittedly, the extent of my familiarity with John Mayer and his music doesn't go much beyond his appearance on Dave Chappelle's show several years ago, but other black folks seem to dig him. The consensus is that the 32-year-old is a super-talented guitarist who can hold his own playing with Kanye, Jay-Z or the Roots.

Asked why black people love him so much, Mr. Mayer answered in the stupidest possible way: "Someone asked me the other day, 'What does it feel like now to have a 'hood pass'? And by the way, it's sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a [racial epithet] pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass?"

The answer, as even the simplest of simpletons knows, is that the concept of a "hood pass" is a white hipster myth. There isn't an accrediting agency in black America that gives white folks the right to get so comfortable around us that you can use a certain racial epithet. Director Quentin Tarantino thinks he has a hood pass. He doesn't.

Eminem, of all people, is smart enough to know he doesn't have a hood pass, which is why Dr. Dre holds him in higher regard than he does 50 Cent. White folks who use racial epithets -- the ones that black folks with a shred of self-respect don't use among themselves -- look silly and borderline racist when they do. There are no exceptions.

Several days ago, John Mayer was taking so much heat for his remarks, he tweeted an apology:

"Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged."

He said lots of things in that interview for which he should have either apologized or provided more context, but you get the point. John Mayer is probably the biggest idiot in show business these days. Still, I don't believe he's racist. He's just another victim of post-racial American hubris who got carried away with the excitement of having a black friend or two.

We ain't mad atcha, John, but we are revoking your hood pass.

Tony's Take on Comix by Tony Norman is featured exclusively in the Opinion section on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.