basically, the author is saying he's boycotting a deli because an employee, not the owner, who he describes as a perfectly good person, frisked forest whitaker (some actor, apparently) under suspicion of shoplifting. he then goes on to assume the employee was a racist and that's why he did it. no evidence, no proof, just a trip to the stockade of the new york times opinion page for the deli owner and his employees, now forever branded as racists.

for all the high minded, well-intentioned rhetoric of the elite media, they're remarkably willing to give a platform to whatever bomb thrower wanders in off the street to fill in for their regular columnists. i'm sorry, but if i don't see a body, i don't want to hear about racism.