Missa Luba. First heard the album in 1968. Adored it. A Catholic mass rendered by the voices of the Congo. Spontaneous, improvisational, beautiful, alive, and full of love.

Sadly, it took me minutes to recall the name, which I suddenly desperately needed after encountering this quartet of comments from crybabies who should know better.

On the November 14 addition of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discussed LA Clipper player Matt Barnes recent trouble related to a Twitter outburst that included the “N-word.” The Tweet (since deleted) read:

“I love my teammates like family, but I’m DONE standing up for these N—–s! All this s–t does is cost me money.”

Kornheiser asked Wilbon about the public use of the racial slur. Wilbon, an African-American said, “People can be upset with me if they want, I, like a whole lot of people, use the N-word all day, every day, my whole life.”

Kornheiser suggested that NBA Comissioner David Stern, and his counterparts at the NFL and MLB, would have to prohibit players from using the word in public. Wilbon bristled and said, “I have a problem with… white people framing the discussion for the use of the N-word.” He also likened the commissioners to plantation owners dictating whether African-Americans could use a word that had been thrust upon them.

Charles Barkley agreed with Wilbon.

“White America don’t get to dictate how me and Shaq talk to each other,” Barkley said, referencing comments made by ESPN reporter Michael Wilbon earlier today. “And they have been trying to infiltrate themselves saying, ‘Well, you guys use it. It’s in rap music’. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not the same. As I tell my white friends, who I love like brothers…They’ve asked me, ‘Well, when is it appropriate (for white people to use the N-word)?’ I said, ‘Well, if you use it around the wrong brotha, the next thing you gone hear is a Glock side your damn head. That’s when it’s inappropriate Earnie.”

The athlete who inspired the ruckus made a semantic distinction.

“(Y)ou guys have to get used to it. This is a new day and age. I think when you put an ‘er’ at the end, that could make people cringe, but if you put an ‘a,’ that’s like saying ‘bro.’ That is how we talk.”

But Oprah told the BBC what everything’s all about regarding Obama’s string of failures and scandals.

“There’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he’s African American. There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”

Laughable. These are all people who are among the American rich. Celebrities. Doormen hold doors for them and limo drivers drive them around. Which is probably how they escape the fact that their obsessions, semantics, and rationalizations are not important or insightful. They’re just boring and annoying.

If you want to be treated like an adult, act like an adult. Don’t tell me you hate wifebeaters if you beat your wife. Don’t tell me you’re all about equality if you can’t endure any criticism based on actual performance. Don’t tell me you’re a Christian if you still regard the whole world as an us against them proposition, with different rules for both.

Why I’m listening to the Kyrie and Sanctus of Missa Luba instead of the silver spoon fat boy from Northwestern.

The term ‘asshole’ is not racial. It’s more basic than that.

The unintended consequence? The ones you want to convert, cow, or confuse simply stop giving a shit. Except for the ones who still remember what so many have obviously forgotten.