Arguably one of the greatest musicals in American history is West Side Story. One song that will always be imprinted in my mind is from the scene when the Jets and Sharks meet at a neighborhood dance and the Sharks respond to the Jets by singing “life is all right in America, if you can fight in America.” I have come to believe that the original lyrics may have been intended to be “if you are white in America.”
The Pittsburg Steelers’ quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, will not face any criminal charges after a 20-year-old college student accused him of sexually assaulting her inside a nightclub’s bathroom in Baldwin County, Ga. Although the star quarterback faces a civil suit by a woman who says he raped her in 2008 at a Lake Tahoe hotel, and the fact that medical results of the recent young woman showed bruising, cuts and vaginal bleeding, it was determined that there was not enough evidence to confirm if she had been raped or not.
This is a sad day in professional sports. Ever since the trial of O.J. Simpson, there has been a double standard applied to how white athletes are treated in contrast to black athletes. In the past, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has not waited for trial or conviction to levy harsh punishments upon NFL high-profile players. Looking at the examples with Adam “Pacman” Jones, Michael Vick, Tank Johnson and Santonio Holmes, there is an obvious double standard. 
He quickly punished or accepted team punishment for each of the aforementioned athletes prior to conviction in a court of law. In addition, he did not wait to meet with Jones or Vick as he has done with the star quarterback. In fact, Goodell gave Jones a season-long suspension in 2007 for his activities in Las Vegas during NBA All-Star week some two months before he was even charged by officials.
Goodell once said, “It is important that the NFL be represented consistently by outstanding people as well as great football players, coaches and staff. We hold ourselves to higher standards of responsible conduct because of what it means to be part of the National Football League. We have long had policies and programs designed to encourage responsible behavior, and this policy is a further step in ensuring that everyone who is part of the NFL meets that standard. We will continue to review the policy and modify it as warranted.”
Yes, life is all right in America, if you are white in America, for in Georgia, the law states that a woman is considered to have been raped if she has sex under the influence of alcohol, and that doesn’t even include giving alcohol to a person under the legal drinking age — which in Georgia is punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. –torrance stephens
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