Inequity and Aaron Judge

I have refused to watch baseball since Commissioner Rob Manfred Jr. made his shameful announcement that MLB was going to move the 2020 All-Star Game from Atlanta to fuel the left’s propaganda about voting right restrictions. 

However, I am still a fan -- and a lifelong Yankees fan -- so I had to celebrate when my favorite player, Aaron Judge, hit his 62nd home run recently. It was an exciting moment for even estranged baseball fans like myself.

It was also an illustrative moment for today's current political debate, as sports often are, because the goal for many today is no longer equality, but rather equity.

Equality and equity are very different. Equality, which has always been the end goal of the civil rights movement, is the assurance that everyone will be given an equal opportunity to succeed without fear of discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or faith. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presented his vision for equality with one of the most quoted phrases in American history, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Today, however, the left shares the dream expressed by Vice President Kamala Harris, who says the goal is not just equality of opportunity, but equality of result as well.

Discussing hurricane relief, Harris said “we have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity; understanding that not everyone starts out at the same place.  And, if we want people to be in an equal place, sometimes we have to take into account those disparities and do that work. ”

Clearly not everyone is meant “to be in an equal place.” I would never be able to run like Usain, play chess like Magnus, fight like Mayweather, sing like Prince, be as smart as Thomas Sowell, or hoop like LeBron.

Aaron Judge is 6’7”, a muscular 285 pounds, and gifted with extraordinary talent. Even if I had attended the same baseball camps and had the same coaches from Little League to the majors, I doubt if I’d ever be able to hit 62 home runs in a single season.

Yet, if I did make it to the majors for an at-bat, I would think that I’d have the same opportunity for success and failure as Judge. I don't expect or want to be favored over him -- don't call my weak ground ball back to the pitcher a homer for “social justice,” for example -- but I don't want the fences moved back 50 feet because I'm Black either.

Similarly, I don't expect my life to be “equal” to that of someone like Elon Musk. I don't expect to be able to drive the same cars, buy the same homes, or eat at the same restaurants as the world’s richest man. I do expect, however, that my property, my vote, my faith, my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, would be equal in value to his or to anyone's.

I wonder what sports would look like if those like Kamala win. Will every Yankee be credited with 62 home runs? Would Floyd Mayweather’s record be 0-0-50? Would the Golden State Warriors be forced to trade Steph Curry to the hapless Knicks?

Would there be any room for excellence in a world that favors equality of outcome?

--DK