Billmon a racist?

Alot has been made today in rightwingnutostan of Billmon's editorial cartoon. See here, and Memorandum.

Leaving aside the actual cartoon, this raises a point I've wondered about since reading this post:

This tragedy has a minor personal dimension for me. The rice plantation where my great grandmother was raised -- indeed, a good part of the parish where she lived her life -- is now about 8 feet under water, a kind of Cajun version of Atlantis.

Left intentionally vague, this could go either way, but I'm just wondering: isn't Billmon black? I've never met the man (at least not knowingly), and I've always wished I would...and considering other posts he's written it's unlikely, but if he is, it'd certainly put a whole different perspective on this recent "the left is racist" oozing out of certain corners of the internets.


Update Kai writes in the comments:

He's not black. Here are his own words:

I have an unpleasant confession to make. I am a Southerner. Born in the south of southern parents, with Confederate veterans and slaveowners on both sides of the family tree. For all I know, there may even be a few Klansman hanging in the lower branches as well -- by their necks, I hope.

I'm also, in some deep subterranean sense, a racist -- for one cannot grow up in the world of my childhood and not be marked by its imprint. Believe me, I know: I've spent my entire life trying to get away from it.