Escaping without being branded a dirty racist for seeming to act bigotedly may not be possible for either party.

Both parties have only themselves to blame. Both spoke foolishly, insensitively and with whopping imprecision.

When you are sloppy in the arena of racial politics, deserving people usually get burnt.

Ladera Heights parents are desperate — I don’t believe that is hyperbolic — to rescue their upward-bound children from the downward-bound schools of the Inglewood District.

The Bugle Is Not Sounding Retreat

Just because the state rejected their attempt to transfer several hundred students into the far more reputable Culver City system, Ladera families are not giving up.

Their options are not evident, but their determination is.

These families have been denied and told no a few times because they are largely black and this part of the world is largely white.

They are absolutely not accustomed to failing in quests they deem critical.

Culver City — namely the School Board and its now-retired Superintendent — could have avoided being painted as racists or being racially insensitive.

All they needed to do was to act with the savvy of a clear-minded politician. Reach into a roomy satchel and pull out the building-block marked “Truth.”

Smacking into a Wall

Instead of candidly, honestly responding to Ladera Heights parents 2 1/2 years ago, they dithered. As the heat rose, they opened the Boob Hatch, hunkered down and tried, lamely, to sneak out of the room before anyone noticed.

After being historically mistreated by white people, how do you think normal, sensible black persons would respond?

Instead of being given a palatable, unclouded, verifiable explanation, he is urged “Trust us.”

You could have made a snap case for impeaching or dismissing all six of them — except that the hordes immediately provided them with cover.

Before the five School Board boobs and the Retired Superintendent — who authored the book Incurable Boobism and How to Live With It — could think up an even dumber answer than the one they gave, School District families poured out of their homes as news of the potential mass transfer spread with the speed and fear of an infectious disease. The angry families chanted something like, “We don’t want Ladera Heights students.”

Now We Don’t Have to Think

This gave the Six Boobs the convenient excuse they were seeking to curl into a group fetal position and practice group shoulder shrugging and group tongue-holding.

If only the Six Boobs had stepped out of character and flirted with the truth.

They could have said, “Our classrooms are too crowded. We would love to assist you, but it is physically impossible.”

Then they could have provided supporting data.

If such a claim is true, and conflicting stories still emerge, then the Ladera Heights case could have fairly been regarded as stillborn.

One Dose of Cowardice

Instead, the Six Bumbling Boobs, acting as if they were genetically disposed toward cowardice, began picking their ear with one hand and their nose with the other.

They closed their eyes, tried to remember how to pray, soon gave up, and admitted they were flatly stumped.

Result: Four decades after Culver City started shedding its reputation as a lily-white town where non-whites and sickness held identical status, the School Board and the Retired Superintendent dug through history until they could recover a “Rednecks and Proud of It” sign.

Who Knows? Does Anyone?

It may be there is an invulnerably legitimate reason for Culver City to turn away such a mass transfer.

But the cowards never articulated it, as far as I can determine.

Instead, they are now stuck with a sullied communal image while critics claim “If the students had been from Beverly Hills instead of Ladera Heights, the transfer would have gone through.”