I'l like to poll the readers for some opinions on this one.

Does Kevin Powell think Ed Towns is racist, or not? Powell used to think that "black people cannot be racist," yet he recently implied that Towns is racist. I'm just a little confused and all.

Back in 1992 on "The Real World," Kevin Powell didn't get along with his roommate Julie. During one heated exchange, Powell states, "Black people cannot be racist. Black people cannot be racist. We don't have the power to control <inaudible> ..." Here's the video; his statement at 1:40: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJiDrpdfJQE

More recently in an interview with "The Brooklyn Paper," now-Congressional candidate Kevin Powell characterized sitting Congressman Ed Towns's attitude towards Powell "as [being motivated by] something else — something, believe it or not given that both men are black, racist."

Here's the link: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:QTmKoysVK5kJ:brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/34/31_34_powell_here.html+http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/34/31_34_powell_here.html&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

This is pulled pulled from Google's history as TBP subsequently edited the story heavily on their site to remove the charge: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/34/31_34_powell_here.html

Now magically changed to "While Towns bought up Powell’s thin background as a negative, Powell saw Towns’s criticism as something else."

I assume this was due to the TBP's needing to clean up their coverage of Powell, since they ultimately endorsed him: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/35/31_35_endorsements.html (so much for editorial integrity ...)

This raises a question. I think the word "racist" is a strong term to be thrown around. And I think nowadays, it just cheapens the crime when African-Americans are throwing the 'racism' card at other African-Americans without any proof.

I just don't know what happened in the intervening years is all. I mean, in 16 years he's gone from saying blacks cannot be racist to calling a former Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and a sitting black congressman of 25 years a racist without real proof?

Does anyone else have any ideas? Is Powell really saying that Ed Towns doesn't like black people, that the reason Towns has delivered so little to Brooklyn is because Towns hates his constituents because of their race? That is a pretty outrageous charge if so.