.Just over 26 years ago, Ice Cube cemented his hip-hop status with his seminal debut, Amerikka’s Most Wanted. Along with brilliant sampling and now-classic rhymes, Amerikka… featured a scathing interlude calling out those who insisted on ‘going along to get along’ rather than rocking the boat when it came to confronting racism: “A message to the ‘oreo cookie’: no matter how much wanna switch, here’s what they think about you…..”
What followed was a snippet of stereotypical insults from the 1989 film Do The Right Thing meant to show acquiescence to oppression doesn’t work, but action will. That sentiment applies to any wrongdoing, and just because it’s unpleasant to confront doesn’t mean folks need to stop doing so. There are many events brimming with the results of racism and sexism, but the most notorious ones involve the conduct of a judge, the legacy of an undisputed champion and reaction to a beauty queen.
The first instance focuses on the controversial Brock Allen Turner rape case. Despite a unanimous ‘guilty’ verdict and the prosecutor’s recommendation of a full six-year-prison term, Judge Aaron Persky gave the Stanford University student three years probation and a six month jail sentence. The Santa Clara Superior Court judge defended the laughable “punishment” by saying Turner’s lack of prior criminal history didn’t warrant incarceration, which “would have a severe impact on him.” In stark contrast, Corey Batey, a 19-year-old African-American Vanderbuilt student and football player, was also convicted of sexual assault. Unlike Turner, who could get out of local jail in three months, Batey will serve a minimum of 15 years in prison. Identical crimes, except one will pay the consequences seemingly because he is Black.
Last weekend I experienced several milestone events, including the graduations of my son Darius and my nephew, It was also the time that the world lost Muhammad Ali. A gold medal-winner and heavyweight champion boxer, Ali rose to prominence via his athleticism, charisma and convictions. His skills, “prettiness” and penchant for taunting opponents with poetic predictions of defeat galvanized fans around the globe. But the adoration turned to angst in 1964, the year he changed his name, converted to Islam and refused to be drafted into the Vietnam war.
Ali was arrested on charges of draft evasion, but even before his conviction was overturned, Ali held fast to his belief that “brown people in Vietnam” weren’t his real enemies. “If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow…..So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.” His 1981 retirement and the onset of Parkinson’s disease turned him from fierce to fragile, but Ali remained a determined social activist.
After electing its first African-American president in 2008, America now stands on the verge of another historic election cycle, thanks to Hillary Clinton. But those realities apparently haven’t sunken in for nasty internet detractors of Maryland’s Deshauna Barber, an African-American who was just crowned Miss USA. If they aren’t dismissing the soldier’s stance on women being as tough as men in combat, they’re saying her dark skin and non-Eurocentric features make her too “Unamerican” (?!) and unattractive to hold the title. 
For some, it’s just business as usual. There are plenty of chauvinistic judges, controversial athletes and petty haters. But dismissal normalizes the wrongs and diminishes the urgency for consequences to make them right. Like Ice Cube once said, accepting injustice will feeds its growth rather than accelerating its demise.
