I Am Not a Slave Owner!

19 June 07

Follow on my rant about not being a meth addict comes this post about white guilt. My son was playing the final game of his basketball season last night. His team is predominantly white. The opposing team was predominantly black. The 9 to 11 year old league has a rule that says all players must play. The opposing coach only played his good players while our coach (a 20 year veteran of the police force) played every one.

Coach Steve also has a sense of fairness, and he’d finally had enough. In the 4th quarter, he called over the other coach and spoke with the league director about the discrepancy. The opposing coach replied (loud enough for everyone to hear), “Man, I ain’t following that cracker rule!”

Our coach’s eyes bulged out, but no one said anything. The opposing coach continued to play only his best players and they went on to win by 2.

Here is my point. Our entire team (parents included) was embarrassed or afraid to call out the other coach on an obvious racial slur. I cannot possibly imagine suggesting a rule favored blacks – especially while using a slur that denigrates black people!

Why didn’t anyone say anything? Was there no one on our side willing to step up and say, “Now wait a minute. That’s unfair!”

Nope, and I tell you why. White guilt. Our culture accepts that blacks can slur against blacks and blacks can slur against whites, but it can never go the other way. It’s kind of an impressive example of selling your cause, actually. Okay, I get it. There is inequality in our society. Whites still have it easier than blacks. We are the majority in America. Surely we have some responsibility to acknowledge that minorities have it tougher.

But does that give minorities the right to push the limits? I’m tired of feeling guilty for something I didn’t do.