This is my response to the Sean Hannities and Rush Limbaughs out there, who howl every time a Wright or a Michele Obama dare show anything but complete and utter fealty toward this great nation:
Imagine a Monopoly game between a white man and a black man. It's being played at the white man's home, so he decides to tweak the rules a bit in his favor. At the start of the game, he gets his own $1500 starting money, then takes his opponent's as well. He also explains that he'll be the only one allowed to buy real estate. They spin around the board a dozen times or so, the white man buying property, the black man building debt to him. After a while, the white man feels bad and starts allowing the black man to collect his $200 as he passes Go, which allows him to pay down a little of his debt. They even work out a deal where the black man can put his own house on Baltic Avenue. The white man doesn't have to pay for landing there, but neither does the black man.
Still, after a while, the black man starts grumbling. This surprises the white man, but he ignores it until his two kids come in and agree with the guest (they don't know the black man, but they very much want his approval). The white man rolls his eyes and tries to ignore them too, but then all three of them begin screaming at him. He's not happy about the disrespect in his own house, and doesn't handle it well. He douses them with water, throws lamps, shoes, phones at them, unleashes the terrier. It's all very unpleasant.
After twenty minutes of this, the man's wife walks in. He's relieved until she puts a hand on his back and says to him, "Steven, (I'm not sure why he's named Steven, but he is) this doesn't seem like a very fair game." Steven's dumbfounded. He sits there for a few minutes without speaking, then his shoulders sink. He refuses to give the black man (let's call him Martin) the original $1500, but he does agree to start allowing him to buy his own properties. Everything else on the board stays the same.
They begin playing again, but it's very tense. Martin's family has arrived, who, along with Steven's wife and kids, are all watching the game like hawks, harping on any move that seems even remotely unfair. Steven's enjoying the game much less than he had been. He doesn't understand how this is better than before--when at least one of them was having fun--but he holds his tongue. He doesn't want to be shouted at again.
They continue to play, Martin earning money, but only barely enough to pay his debts, while Steven's buying more and more houses and hotels for the properties he accumulated in the early portion of the game. Most rounds, Martin pays much more in rent than he can afford, and he seems to pull many more "Go to Jail" cards than Steven does. After a particularly long incarceration and an expensive stop on Park Avenue, he mumbles something about Steven's unfair head start. To Steven's amazement, the rest of the room agrees. They're not as upset about it as they were before, but they clearly think the odds are somehow stacked in Steven's favor. Now it's Steven's turn to get angry.
"Quit whining!" he screams at them. "The rules have been the same for almost an hour now!" He goes on to suggest that if Martin can't win the game, maybe he should just accept that he's not the player Steven is. He says something about "you people" being ungrateful and everyone gets upset again. They shout for awhile, then settle down, and the game continues.
It's still very tense until Martin's kids get bored and start a second game with Steven's kids. They play by the official Milton Bradley rules and the competition is pretty good from the start. At the other board, Martin and Steven are still quiet and leery of each other, but everyone else is ignoring them now. They've become much more interested in the new game, which seems to be going much better.
The moral? Playing by the rules in the second half of the game doesn't mean the odds have been evened. Also, don't expect the other guy to forget about the first half anytime soon.