Poor Gordon Brown, he’s having a helluva week. First he’s taken on

by the Governor of the Bank of England for overspending, and then he gets to sit uncomfortably as his guest, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, goes off on a racially charged, wince inducing tirade about the reason for the global financial mess:

‘This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of people that are white, blue-eyed, that before the crisis looked like they knew everything about economics,’ he declared.

‘Now they have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about economics.’

President Lula, head of Brazil’s main left-wing party, said that ‘no black man or woman, no indigenous person, no poor person’ had been in any way culpable for the global banking crisis.

‘I’m not acquainted with any black banker,’ he said. ‘The part of humanity that’s responsible should pay for the crisis.’ Source

Oh Lord. Reflexively, when I first read about this on twitter last night (via allahpundit), my American back went up. My internal dialogue reminded me in its most stern tone that this castigation was from the leader of one of the most racially segregated and stratified countries

on Earth. I am not surprised that Lula de Silva “doesn’t know any black bankers.”

But then I had to ask myself, is there any part of his statement, no matter how racist in its expression, that is true?

The part that rings true to me is that wealthy, educated, privileged people most benefited from the explosion in asset valuation, corporate compensation and easy credit. Because I live a racially integrated, entrepreneurial life, I am surrounded by affluent people of all colors (poor too, but that is not the point here.) That diversity shapes my point of view. We all drank that champagne as it flowed from the cauldron of a deregulated environment that mixed greed with virtue. Greed was exalted and accepted as a motivational foundation for sustained growth. Now, our bar tab has come due. Not it all seems like a dream.

But the flip side is that it will be many of the same wealthy, educated people who profited from the hollow boom who will be needed to design the strategies to lead the way out of the financial mess. So let’s hold the blanket castigation for another day.

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More Carmen Dixon can be found on her blog, All About Race.