I still remember the time it almost happened to me.

I was a green, just-out-of-college reporter covering the Easyriders Motorcycle Rodeo just north of Pittsburgh in Butler, Pa. and I was feeling awfully out of my element interviewing biker guys and their old ladies (their term!). They were doing things like balancing a running bike in place, using no legs, while the girl sits up in the back seat and tries to bite a hot dog hanging from a line in the air. Really.

While I was watching this action (and wondering who came up with this crazy s*%#) a spectator in the stands decided he wanted to come down a pick a fight with me -- mostly because I was the only black man in the joint. Fortunately, I had done some really cool interviews with guys in the merchandise stands and they literally put the guy down for me to keep him from kicking my butt.

All this explains why I feel for South Carolina TV reporter Charmayne Brown, who was attacked by crazy relatives of a guy she was reporting on, who had been arrested by police for murder. She was black, they were white and they pounded on her while yelling racial slurs (of course, a competing TV crew filmed the whole ugliness without actually, you know, helping)

Here it is, if you can stand to watch it. Me, I'm just thinking how lucky I was that Saturday afternoon 17 years ago.