Different Races Running Different Races

I was sitting in a gym last night, waiting to film a basketball game. I had gotten to the gym early so I sat and watched the game that was being played before. The two teams that were playing were complete opposites. One team was more methodical and taller, while the other team was shorter and moved at a faster pace. It also happened that one team was predominately white, while the other was mainly comprised of minorities.

Let me just say that the officiating was fair. It was bad... but it was fair. But from early on, to me it seemed like the game had a certain edge to it. With every blown call, the fans for each side got more and more raucous, wondering how anyone with the ability to see, could miss what the referees just didn't see. And with every call that went for the other team, fans for each side made accusations about the integrity of said referees, claiming that the refs were in the other teams' back pocket.

As things progressed later into the game, the crowds for either team became increasingly animated and more upset as the game got deeper into the final quarters. The fans for the minority team screamed with an intensity that rattled the rafters, shook the bleachers, and reminded me of the tales I'd heard about Montgomery bus boycotts, and fights over Jim Crow. The fans for the mostly white team, felt like their team was getting robbed out of a victory due to the fact that the opposing team was made up of minorities. They were shouting that the game should be called fair, and that the referees should stop giving handouts. For the entire second half, shouts came from both sides of the gym, claiming that despite obvious cheating their team would prevail.

Now I hope its obvious that I am using massive amounts of hyperbole. I would never in a million years actually compare events that happened in the south during the 1960's to a basketball game I attended yesterday, and believe that they will ever be on the same level. But I have heard that conflict doesn't create character, it reveals it. I wonder what those people would say if they could see their behavior last night, and the level of character that it revealed. I honestly believe that if someone showed them a video of their actions, they would be ashamed.