The Czar has previously said that when racism is genuine, it is totally obvious to any reasonable person and needs no civic leader to point it out for us.

Remember in baseball, prior to Jackie Robinson, when they held a Major League all-star game against the Negro League all-stars…and the Negro League cleaned the clocks of the MLB best to the horror of the mostly white crowd? And how the MLB said the victory did not count due to “ground rules?” That was racist.

Thank goodness the same thing would not happen today, right? Where a judging body threw a competition because the crowd got ticked that the wrong race won?

Guess again.

So Coca Cola decides to hold a stepping competition for college students. Stepping (and it’s a fairly new thing so don’t be alarmed if you have not heard of it) is a highly rhythmic form of dance involving clapping, chanting, and stomping. Cool stuff, actually. It originated in largely African American communities and is getting national…and even international…fans.

The results? Well, by all accounts, the Zeta Tau Alpha (Arkansas University) sorority was an easy winner, and did an outstanding job. Watch the videos online and judge for yourself; the Czar claims no expertise here. And so Coca Cola awarded the young ladies the $100,000 prize.

Except, the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority is predominately white.

And so came the blogs, Facebook rants, and outraged television field interviews all accusing Coca Cola (a major employer among the black community of Atlanta, by the way) of racism. Racism, racism, racism. Coke, naturally, denied it.

And the charges of racism kept coming. And coming. And so Coca Cola announced that, surprise, there was a slight error in the scoring tabulation. Even though the scores were confidential, and no one knows how the finalists were ranked, Coca Cola suddenly discovered that a major discrepancy occurred (evidently they forgot to carry the 1,000) and announced that Alpha Kappa Kappa—an all-black sorority—was a co-winner. And Coca Cola coughed up another $100,000 to award AKK for their efforts. Why AKK? Well, since the scoring remains secret, no one knows if they were even close to Team ZTA or not.

A telling comment from one of the audience: “The bottom line was they didn’t care if the girls were better or not; the people that were upset were saying white girls should not have won, period”

Wow. This is not one of those ironic stories where you say “If we switched white and black, this would be a clear-cut case of racism.” This is a clear-cut case of racism without any need to switch at all. Shame on Coca Cola for selling out, because the next sponsorship will cost a lot more than $200,000 to silence. And shame on those who would cheat and bend the rules to ensure the wrong race loses. Dr. King would weep to learn that Atlanta still judges people based on skin color and nothing else.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.