Extrapolated Punishment

A thought-provoking debate is going on in my "Theft of Irony" post. The debate started when I received an email directly from a reader who took issue with my statement that "About the same ratio of bad guys there as there are at the courts you used to play at in Iowa." As the real topic here wasn't a regional thing, but a racial thing, the emailer correctly told me that there are a plethora of verifiable stats refuting such a "same ratio".

I'm thankful to the reader for posting those comments on this site itself per my request. As he told me in his follow up email: "You're always talking about little brother watching; well, you just got fact checked." Exactly! Which is why I asked him to post it.

My statement about ratios is simply wrong. Mea culpa.

Of course, the point itself, that just because, according to the stats, a slightly higher percentage of blacks commit crimes than whites do, doesn't make it right for people to allow race to color their judgment and their actions to the point where one would rather take their ball and go home than share it while playing pick up.

If one would share with a white kid, but not a black kid because of those stats that show there are statistically significant differences among races in things like crime....if you extrapolate those statistics out from race to individuals, that black kid on that court is going to effectively be punished something he had absolutely nothing to do with. And that’s just wrong – you know it and I know it.

By the way, I trademarked "Little Brother Is Watching You."