My sister called me last night to say that she had been channel-surfing and paused at Keith Olbermann — who called a group of us “The Worst Person in the World” (the worst people, I guess we must have been). This is a regular feature of Olbermann’s, as you may know. On this occasion, there were six of us — six villains. What had we done? Basically, we had described President Obama as arrogant, after Wednesday night’s State of the Union address.

This is what I wrote, here in the Corner: “Obama looks arrogant, whether he’s arrogant or not. I don’t think he can help it: It’s the upturned chin. When actors want to preen and so on: They turn that chin upward. Yikes.” (For my complete remarks, go here.) A few years ago, I wrote something sort of similar about Hosni Mubarak, after attending a speech of his in Sharm El Sheikh. What I said was, “And, although this is not his fault — he looks rather like a thug. Unkind to say, but true. It’s his fault only if he acts like a thug.” For that, I was attacked in the press by a leading Arab journalist (Jihad Khazen). (Just by the way, I’ve never had good press from people named Jihad.)

Anyway, Olbermann said that I, along with my five “co-winners,” was racist. Of course. Being a conservative, or even somehow anti-Left, means that you will be called a racist. Period. It’s written in stone. You get used to it — but not really. I have been called a racist ever since I began to express classical-liberal views when I was in college. Oppose race preferences, for example — advocate colorblindness — and you will be called a racist. Charlie Rangel called tax cuts racist. Do you remember?

In any case, I have never — never really and truly — gotten used to being called a racist. I suppose I never will, even if I live to 143.

I must say that I thought about the race angle when I wrote what I did about Obama — when I linked the word “arrogant” to him. Very close to “uppity.” What would people say? But I went ahead and wrote, freely, because, you know? There comes a time when you have to regard people as people, irrespective of skin color. There are blacks who are arrogant, or arrogant-looking; there are whites who are arrogant, or arrogant-looking. There are blacks and whites who are the soul of saintly meekness.

These are human qualities, and race has absolutely nothing to do with it.

But, of course, we often observe racial taboos, when we speak and write. I self-censor all the time — even when it’s totally illogical to do so. This may be a lingering effect of my left-liberal, race-soaked upbringing. I don’t think I would ever call a black person “articulate,” even if he were the most articulate person in the world — because it has been a white-condescension word for years. Look, I have trouble calling a five-year-old black kid a “boy” — just because of the sting of history.

In my music reviews, I often write about a performer’s sense of rhythm. Why wouldn’t I? These are music reviews. Last fall, I wanted to laud a certain performer’s sense of rhythm — but I didn’t. I held back. Because the performer was black. So, I denied her a compliment — while bowing to a god of race, I suppose. Maybe we should not worship false gods.

Speaking of music, I’ll give you a little footnote here: I looked for a clip of Olbermann’s “Worst Person” blast, but could not find one. But I found what is called a “preview” of the show, here. And I learned something interesting: Olbermann uses a snippet of the Scherzo from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in his theme music. I mean, it is incorporated into the theme music. That’s kind of cool. But the Olbermann show is not, from all I know. And it sort of pains me to see Beethoven associated with it.

He was a great man, difficult as he was — a very great man. In addition to that dollop of musical talent he had.