Before losing his world light heavyweight title to Welshman Joe Calzaghe on Saturday night, Bernard Hopkins had assured his fans, "I would never let a white boy beat me. Never." The bold — and what I consider to be ugly — statement raises a question about which editor Lauren Williams and I had a lengthy discussion last week: What if a white person had said something like that?

Let me be clear, I in no way believe the world's whites have, as a whole, suffered in the way the world's blacks have, and, for some reason not easily put into words, I think this grants blacks some leeway as far as what is socially acceptable language. (For instance, "cracker" will never be hurtful in the way "nigger" is.) But, as the saying goes, just because you can doesn't mean you should, and bigotry comes from the same place within everyone, regardless of the sensitivity of the targets. Had Calzaghe stood at a press conference and announced, "I'll never lose to a black boy," the fight very well might have been canceled because of the public outcry for Calzaghe's head. Why wasn't there a similar reaction when Hopkins publicly equated white with weakness (a declaration ultimately proved to be untrue)?

Words are powerful, and it's a shame historical circumstances have rendered some slurs more acidic than others, but that doesn't mean anyone — no matter their background — should go around flippantly mocking people because of the color of their skin. In fact, very often, it's best to shut up and let your actions speak for you. That's a lesson Bernard Hopkins could stand to learn from that world champion "white boy."