Day after day, year after year, Povich and Springer have been living the dream on their daily TV talk shows by exposing the content of the character of their guests, both white and black, in such a fashion that viewers can't help but be ashamed of their own race.

Perhaps this isn't quite the progress Brother Martin had in mind, but in their own egalitarian way Povich and Springer have reduced the lowest common denominator among white and black to such a level that the only question of racial identity is the big one: Are these people human beings?

Discussing the merits or engaging in criticism of these shows is like denouncing pornography. First you have to admit you look at it regularly in order to know what you're talking about. Then you have to acknowledge that while most decent people are at work or school, there you are watching daytime TV.

But instead of watching Ellen or Oprah or Montel or the soaps, you are watching Maury or Jerry, which is to say, the fall of human dignity -- not the guests, not the hosts, not the audiences -- but your own. Not only that, it's like watching the same show every day. On Jerry "Teeth Optional" Springer, the only question is which obese hillbilly woman is the mother sleeping with the skinny father of her obese daughter's children. On Maury "Darnell, you are NOT the father!" Povich the only question is how many times Lakeisha will declare that she is 110 percent positive that the eleventh man she had dragged in for a paternity test is the father of her child.

Yes, it's like watching a train wreck, except it's a train wreck with a live studio audience that hoots and applaudes when a car filled with children gets caught on the railroad tracks. What kind of people would do this to their families, let alone themselves? What kind of people watch this crap? We have met the enemy and he is us.