Sometimes black paint is just black paint. But tell that to the folks at the University of South Carolina, where an innocuous black paint incident was recently read as a racist black face incident. On March 2, a sorority fundraiser went awry when a white male student performed a dance number with black paint darkening his legs. The skit was a parody of Janet Jackson's boobalicious Super Bowl performance, and as such it nominally fit the theme of the fundraiser, which was dedicated to raising money for breast cancer research. But the combination of black leg paint and a black female butt-of-joke suggested to some that the Jackson number was a type of minstrel show, and that the object of the skit was to engage in racial mockery. The event went downhill from there.

The black fraternity walked out. Sorority officials issued a formal apology. The Association of African-American Students met with USC's president to demand "minority representation" in the Office of Greek Life and mandatory diversity training for all students. Last week, the university complied with the demand for minority representation in the Office of Greek Life, moving the associate director of multicultural affairs there until that office hires a person of color. And next month, the African-American Studies program will launch a program intended to educate fraternities and sororities about the racial history of minstrel shows.

"This is not just a black or white issue to anyone who understands the history of minstrelsy," said Carl Wells, director of USC's office of multicultural student affairs. "Even if people don't intend to offend anyone, there is a distinction you have to draw between intent and impact."

That would be an understatement. Turns out the student who wore the offending body paint was thus painted because he was scheduled to appear later in the same show in a skit featuring him wearing a painted-on tuxedo. He couldn't put on pants for the Jackson skit, he explained in a public apology Tuesday, because the paint on his legs wasn't dry when it came time for him to go on stage. Besides, the paint represented black cloth, not black skin. ìI feel like I havenít been portrayed as I should be," he said. "Iím not a racist."

The offended were unmoved by his explanation. ìRegardless of his intentions, there was a reaction,î said one junior. ìItís not always about our intentions, but how weíre perceived.î In other words, if someone thinks you are a racist, you are. Even if all you've done is painted pants on your legs.

Justin Williams, president of the Association of African-American Students at USC, has been one of the most vocal proponents of reading the non-episode for all it's worth. "We are in the South, and we have the Confederate flag on the State House grounds," he said initially. "This time they were caught." He adhered to this paranoid stance even after he heard the explanation of how the dancer's legs had come to be black. ìThis is about a sickness that needs to be cured,î he told the school paper. He's right about that ... but I don't think the dancer is the one with the sickness.

The moral of the story seems to be that it is less embarrassing to maintain that black body paint is always already racist than it is to admit to a big collective mistake. The subsidiary morals seem to be that misreading can create racism (by creating the appearance of racism) where none exists, and that it's just always best to keep your pants on in public.

No word yet on whether USC's proposed sensitivity training will include a section on the racist connotations of men's formal wear.

I am reminded, perhaps perversely, of a passage from Dickens' Hard Times. The scene is a utilitarian schoolroom, in which an inspector is conducting an impromptu examination of the pupils:

'Suppose you were going to carpet a room. Would you use a carpet having a representation of flowers upon it?í

There being a general conviction by this time that ëNo, sir!í was always the right answer to this gentleman, the chorus of NO was very strong. Only a few feeble stragglers said Yes: among them Sissy Jupe.

ëGirl number twenty,í said the gentleman, smiling in the calm strength of knowledge.

Sissy blushed, and stood up.

ëSo you would carpet your room ó or your husbandís room, if you were a grown woman, and had a husband ó with representations of flowers, would you?í said the gentleman. ëWhy would you?í

ëIf you please, sir, I am very fond of flowers,í returned the girl.

ëAnd is that why you would put tables and chairs upon them, and have people walking over them with heavy boots?í

ëIt wouldnít hurt them, sir. They wouldnít crush and wither, if you please, sir. They would be the pictures of what was very pretty and pleasant, and I would fancy ó í

ëAy, ay, ay! But you mustnít fancy,í cried the gentleman, quite elated by coming so happily to his point. ëThatís it! You are never to fancy.í

ëYou are not, Cecilia Jupe,í Thomas Gradgrind solemnly repeated, ëto do anything of that kind.í

ëFact, fact, fact!í said the gentleman. And ëFact, fact, fact!í repeated Thomas Gradgrind.

ëYou are to be in all things regulated and governed,í said the gentleman, ëby fact. We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You have nothing to do with it. You are not to have, in any object of use or ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact. You donít walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets. You donít find that foreign birds and butterflies come and perch upon your crockery; you cannot be permitted to paint foreign birds and butterflies upon your crockery. You never meet with quadrupeds going up and down walls; you must not have quadrupeds represented upon walls. You must use,í said the gentleman, ëfor all these purposes, combinations and modifications (in primary colours) of mathematical figures which are susceptible of proof and demonstration. This is the new discovery. This is fact. This is taste.í

The girl curtseyed, and sat down. She was very young, and she looked as if she were frightened by the matterñofñfact prospect the world afforded.