Jay Smooth breaks it down for the rest of us in, How To Tell People They Sound Racist.

Everybody has been in one conversation or another where you just had to make a double take because what came out of the mouth of your acquantaince, friend, family or lover was not just stupid but also bordered on racist.

Jay explains the importance of distinguishing between addressing the "what they did" conversation as opposed to the "what they are" conversation. Or as I've referred to my own writing on race, the difference between the actions and the intentions.

You may have not intended to be a racist. The thought may even revolt you. And yet, you'll say something so offensive to a person of color that you're reaction is to defend the purity of your heart. Yet that's the problem: for the offended, there is no way to measure anything other than the action. Actions live outside of the actor. Intentions are emotions and they are completely subjective.

Watch the video. Jay does a fantastic job at establishing a simple strategy for dealing with the unexpected Public Display Of Ignorace (or PDI).

Jay Smooth is the publisher of ill Doctrine, a hip-hop video blog and the seminal HipHopMusic.com. He is also founder of New York's longest running hip-hop radio show, WBAI's Underground Railroad.