False Discrimination

Perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of society is not that discrimination still exists, but the fact that false discrimination exists. What's false discrimination, you ask? It was a term coined in the last five minutes...as far as I know. But it basically embodies the belief that something is out of discrimination, when in all logic and truth, it is not.

It was just wrong to read an article on ESPN.com about the situation with Rick Ankiel and HGH, and comparing it to Barry Bonds. For a little back drop for those of you who aren't sports nuts, Barry Bonds is the new home run king who just passed Henry "Hank" Aaron on the alltime home run list. He is also the walking, living, breathing human target of all non-San Francisco natives in the sports world. aside from his reputation for being arrogant and snobby, he has been often connected to the steroid scandal involving Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Freak muscle growth, HGH, testosterone, whatever. The people had their mind up about this guy early enough because he liked throwing words at everybody because apparently the media and the government were apart of some partnered conspiracy to diminish and otherwise overthrow his image.

Rick Ankiel was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals who went down in flames and disappeared to never be heard from again. He began to reemerge in the Minor Leagues as a power hitting outfielder. When an injury came mid-way this season, the call to the majors for Ankiel was here. He came up, and out of the blue, he was hitting home runs. Multi-homer games, grand slams, it was all glory. Then several days ago, a report got out that he received Human Growth Hormone in 2004. The feel-good story that was supposed to hear a sport long distraught from the steroid controversy, was shattered, ironically, by steroids.

Barry Bonds is black. Rick Ankiel is white.

Now apparently, if you don't like a man who is arrogant and self-righteous, and provokes much of his problems (this man just happens to be black as well), but you don't hate the nice man who really has been quietly helping his team without a traveling circus (this man just happens to be white), then you're racist. I'm sorry, that's just wrong. Racism is still at large, a major issue in this country, of course, but this is not one of those cases. It's almost as disgusting to hear people say that the opposition against Michael Vick, the dogfighting NFL player, is because of his race. They say that if he was white, it would some how be ok. Again, that is extremely absurd. People don't dislike Vick because he's black. People dislike him because he hung, electrocuted, drowned, and otherwise inhumanely murdered dogs while pitting others in fights to the death. As far as the consensus is concerned, he should be burning in hell right now, without the Jesus he claims he found. And THAT is not because he is black.

It seems that nowadays in America, if you dislike or do anything towards a minority, you're racist, sexist, etc. Now I'm in no way saying this doesn't exist either. This is an extremely rampant problem in society today, but it's inevitable, because as humans, we're prone to our own prejudices and biases, which in many people, are as shallow as skin color and sexual orientation. But these days, minorities have a certain power to scream "discrimination" like it's a free card out of jail. False proclamations like these will diminish a society.

It's like in court rooms. In a rape case, where a man is accused of raping a woman, what's going to be the preconceived notion? The man did rape the woman. He is the bearer of shame, the true embodiment of a demon, sick, demented, twisted, and otherwise perverted. But what happens if the tables are turned and a woman is accused of raping a man? The man looks like a fool. And this all goes back to the notion that women and feminists are trying to defeat nowadays: that women are weaker than men. So essentially, it's a series of discriminatory stereotypes going around in a circle taking it's punches where it sees fit.

The point is this: it is alright to accuse and seek punishment for discrimination. Discrimination is wrong. But there has to be reasonable grounds first. You can't punch somebody, then when you get punished, cry "hate crime" and declare that as a minority, you are being singled out. It just doesn't work that way...well, it shouldn't, anyway.