Who's who in the racial online zoo?

I am a disappointed in some "online professionals". The reason I am using the term with my tongue poking and prodding at my cheek is because I believe there is a fair amount of professionalism being thrown down the toilet. Mandy de Waal wrote an article for ITWeb titled "Who's who in the Web 2.0 Zoo?".Some people seemingly took great offence that there where no people of colour in the article. Rafiq was invited to participate, he declined. The angle of the article was simply an interview and answer process. Certain people who are major players in the online market were asked to name three people who they would want to work with in the online arena. These people did so. Not based on racial innuendos as justifications. These were simply the people who each interviewee wished to work with on a professional level.Unfortunately someone needed to respond, someone always need to respond, and needed to emphatically make a racial statement. This is extremely sad. Ramon Thomas took up the cause and titled his article "Who’s who in the non-white Web 2.0 South African Zoo". The title alone immediately marginalises his audience and those involved in his article. He immediately boxes those in his article and ostracizes those who read it.The immediate feeling that I get is that this is like affirmative action in sports teams - the Springboks to be precise. The situation that rugby players of colour have faced in the past is a lose-lose, if they are chosen they question the reasons for their selection. If they are not chosen then they wonder if it was due to their race. Lose. Lose.If I was on Ramon's list I'd be pretty upset. The candidates on this list are no longer the best in their profession but only the best in their racial class. Mandy's article might have lacked some depth but she did not force the answers out of the participants, they chose out of their own free will. She also did not classify her article as black or white inspite of the black text and white background colour. Now there are more web professionals who have been dragged in to this to make a statement. They have become pawns in the game of race.Mandy made an error in undermining hew own article when she used a pull quote that included the words "White boys club". If this was the angle of the story then I think that this would have been an integral part of an article that would be able to ask some very important questions about the racial state of the online industry. The pull quote was irrelevant in the context of her story and in my opinion undermined the people who took part in the article.There is an important question to be asked: where are the black professionals in the online industry?Darren Ravens asks the question more appropriately. But I think that Darren Gorton got it right.Personally I would like to be considered a media professional for the work that I do, not for the work that I do as a white(ish), Greek (almost), South African male.