Business as usual

            In this great land known as the United States of America, what do the New England Patriots, Houston Astros, and Christopher Columbus all have in common? Tick tock, tick tock, tick...tock...you guessed it, all three engaged in some form of theft, fraud, and/or CHEATING. Do you know what else they have in common? Correct again. Not a single one of them received anywhere near a fair amount of punishment in correlation to the crime. Hell, Columbus was given a whole holiday and several universities named after him for his theft and genocidal acts. The Pats got a slap-on-the-wrist fine and lost a few useless draft picks despite getting caught twice doing the same bullshit. Lastly, the Astros got to keep their beloved World Series trophy despite knowing exactly every pitch that was coming across the plate in 2017 (and who knows what other years).

            All three got to do this while Reggie Bush forfeited his Heisman, the Fab Five had their banners snatched, and Cam Newton was almost declared ineligible due to a pay for play scandal. Now that we've gotten all of those facts out the way, let's unpack the why behind why certain punishments were handed out, and others weren't. Remember that Italian fella's name I mentioned earlier? You know the one who is celebrated every October for "Discovery of America," but really got lost, stole valuable property that wasn't his, and ravaged an entire nation of people already here? Keep him in mind because terrible as he is, his name is actually central to our other guest, the Houston Astros.

            Okay, so the Space Rangers as we'll call 'em for humor's sake decided they wanted to gain a slight upper hand, and that if you weren't cheating, you weren't trying. No big harm there, right? I mean seriously, who hasn't cheated or at least been slightly deceptive at least a few times in their life? Yeah, I thought so...all hands raised. However, here's the one fundamental difference. How many of us who have done some type of cheating received multi-million dollar contract extensions? How many of us were heralded as rightfully belonging on the top of the mountain of our respective careers? How many of us were portrayed as some kind of borderline hero or true champion? Amazingly but not surprisingly, I don't see any hands raised.

           Awesome, we have now established that cheating in this country only matters if you A-get caught and B-receive some type of handsome reward for your crooked behavior. With that in mind, why are the Astros allowed to keep their title, but the legendary Fab Five's Final Four banners still aren't hanging in Crisler Arena? What is the difference? Is cheating not cheating, and are the penalties not equally applied to all offenders regardless of gender, social class, sexual orientation, or dare I say race? Did you feel that pinch in your spine...maybe your neck? Well for those who did feel it, that was your guilty conscience being activated due to how hard you try to deny that racism is alive and well and will forever remain so. Back to the lecture at hand.

           A group of majority white males playing in a league full of majority white males get caught with their hand ocean deep in the cookie jar and keep the reward they got for their antics. A group of black inner city youth take college hoops by storm, prove the doubters wrong, play an unconventional style of ball, and win everything except a national title have their banners "erased" because one was found to have taken illegal benefits from a booster. Benefits that shouldn't be illegal anyway and speak to the corruption and hypocrisy of the NCAA, but that's another totally different topic that you can explore more in my "Amateur Athletes" article from way back when. Other than the differences I have outlined for you, what else can we use as a point of difference?

         Oh, that's right...there's that pesky fact that only the minority in American wanted to see the Fab Five be successful. The majority wanted to witness their downfall. Since majority of the Astros roster belongs to the "majority," of course they can keep their title. Of course they can be forgiven for this transgression as if it never happened. But can Reggie Bush be given back his Heisman Trophy (even though I always thought Vince Young should have won, but again, another story LOL)? Absolutely not! In this corporation known as the USA, there's absolutely no way a poor black kid from the ghetto can dare to profit from his name and the MILLIONS he generated for the University of Southern California and the NCAA. That young buck better know his place, and it ain't wit his masters in the press box or the back of the limo. It's out there on the field (sound like a familiar place?) entertaining the masses.

        So, why were the Astros not punished in the same way as Reggie and the Fab Five? It's simple. The same reason Brock Turner is walking around free today. The exact concept America is rooted in. WHITE PRIVILEGE. Remember our Italian friend, Columbus? The originator of white privilege. The sole individual who rolled into motion the idea that if I belong to a certain race and/or class, then anything that belongs to others can automatically become mine if I want it to. Think about it, if 528 years later, this country still hasn't seen fit to stop celebrating this ruthless tyrant, why would the powers that be of America's past time see fit to fully punish folks who merely engaged in behavior this country was founded upon?