Wednesday morning, I criticized an absurd Arizona Republic op-ed titled, “Phoenix restaurant says this is a photo of coal miners. But I see offensive blackface.”

The target of my criticism, Rashaad Thomas, argued that a Phoenix-area restaurant displaying a nearly 100-year-old photo of soot-covered, beer-swilling Welsh coal miners is tantamount to the restaurant telling its minority patrons “whites only.” That’s a funny thing for him to say, considering he only saw the photo because he was inside the restaurant as the attendee of a holiday party.