From the department of, “I can’t make this stuff up,” comes the accusation that as a result of her clearly bizarre performance at the MTV VMA awards, Miley Cyrus is a racist.

Yup. You heard it here first, or um, second. This accusation has been leveled at her from people who apparently know a racist when they see one, especially in her underwear.

I am not going to defend her performance. You can watch it here or in any number of the posts where it’s gone viral. The only thing more viral than her performance is the discussion about it in the media.

Wooo hooo! Those of us who have never made a mistake sure can tell the rest of us what’s up.

Before I get into whether or not Miley Cyrus is a racist and if her performance was racist and if her underwear is racist, I want to say that in my opinion this 20-year-old girl did make a mistake.

However, and let me be clear, there are many of us who have had too much to drink and paraded around in our underwear (or maybe I am projecting?).

I feel sorry for Miley. She is not old enough to drink legally and obviously not old enough to manage her career. Her performance was humiliating and someone should have given her the hook, meaning taken her off stage. But I think this could be an opportunity for her to grow, and for the rest of us to pay more attention to what is being pedaled as entertainment.

There are more people responsible for what happened than just one 20 year old girl.

Now, is she a racist? I know one thing for sure: You can’t tell if she’s a racist from her skin color or her underwear.

Last week, I was called a racist and a bigot because I wrote an opinion that I did not appreciate Al Jazeera advertising that they are the only network with “the other side of the story.”

In the past, their idea of accuracy has been to show the videos of terrorists including Osama Bin Laden. It doesn’t make me a racist or a bigot against Arabs because one was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people. I am smarter than that.

I also know that Al Jazeera is made up of very good journalists reporting important news. But that still does not excuse a certain laissez-faire attitude toward the statements and videos of renowned terrorists. Again, I am not “against” Arabs, but I am not a fan of anyone, of any nationality, who claims to be responsible for bombings and killings.

I also am not a fan of Fox News. But that doesn’t make me a liberal. I do love The New York Times. Okay, maybe I am a liberal.

Here’s my point: We do not know anything about Miley Cyrus and her politics because she danced around in her underwear. And by claiming this makes her a racist, diminishes the power of the accusation.

Racism and bigotry are important topics. This week is the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I have a dream.” If we are going to live together in peace and harmony, we must look at these critical issues to continue to raise our collective consciousness.

I have a dream too, that one day, we are judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. I learned that from Dr. King.

Miley Cyrus has been called a racist because of the color of her skin.

If she was black or African American, would her performance have been called racist?

I didn’t think so.

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Ed: Bryonie Wise