What if basketball was like real life?

Basketball is a fair game, right?  It's usually one of the few places where people of all colors can step on a court and be treated fairly by people in striped shirts.  Sometimes, we observers and fans think the refs are biased, but for the most part, they call a fair game.  But what if, basketball was like real life?

My wife and I are taking a White Privilege awareness class at our church, St. Martin's Episcopal Church, that was developed by the United Church of Christ.  It is a powder-keg topic with many whites because they don't want to recognize the privileges that they were born with due to the color of their skin and seem unwilling to acknowledge the piles of data that has been amassed showing how we have discriminated against people of color in employment, education, housing, finance and voting rights.  Racism is the result of prejudices and power and whites have had that power for the last 155 years in ways that have maintained their racial superiority since the emancipation of slaves.

I am a 70 year old retired, white male.  I once had a black co-worker tell me forty years ago that I was a racist (I think he said "closet racist" and he preferred out and out racists because he knew where he stood with them).  I was a liberal, progressive 30 year old Minnesotan (with little experience in race relations) who tried my darndest to be "colorblind" and I was deeply offended but he was right.  We are all racist in some way, shape or form.  We may have the best intentions but some of us are still very awkward at interacting with our brothers of color.  But unless we talk about it, recognize and celebrate our differences, we will never overcome our awkwardness.  I am still learning about being a human bean.

Back to this theoretical basketball game.  So, think of this basketball game as if it is just like the real world.  What does it look like?  Here are some random, new rules..... you can add your own if you like.  I just want you to think about what your life might be like if you weren't born white.

If you are black:

• The white team gets a 20 point lead to start the game
• The white team's basket is 10 feet tall.  Yours changes each time down the floor, from 10 to 12 feet tall (sort of like interest rates on a home loan).
• The white team can travel, carry the ball, gets most of the 50-50 calls
• The ref might blow his whistle on you for no reason (like being stopped in your car)
• On defensive rebounds, the over the back foul by the white offensive player is called on you
• The white player flops on a shot, you get the foul.  
• You start the game with three fouls (or you only get two fouls before you foul out)
• If you foul out, you are suspended for a game
• If you foul out of two games, you are suspended for the season
• If suspended, you have to pay $500 for an GPS monitor ankle bracelet (up front) and $10 per day maintenance fee.
• If you can't pay the down payment or the daily fee, you go to jail (if this is hard to believe, read last week's St. Louis American article on workhouse releases  http://www.stlamerican.com/news/editorials/st-louis-should-end-unconstitutional-use-of-electronic-monitoring-and/article_69c94cc4-19f8-11e9-9542-6be56a802c05.html)

Seems sort of harsh, doesn't it.  Good thing that basketball is a fair game.  Too bad that life is still not fair to all people.

Peace.