Black People, Backgammon and Cheating

I just picked-up the new iPhone from Apple. One of the apps I bought was backgammon for an amazing $.99. I played a lot of this in college many years ago, but what struck me was not how great the gadget is (indeed it is), but rather that this particular game (not made by Apple BTW) cheats like a SOB. I am a software developer and a life-long student of probability. Eight times out of ten the roll of the dice that the computer-as-opponent needs to advance, it gets. Double sixes in a row, right when I’m about to finally win a game - WTF! I am getting my ass kicked. Herein lies a lesson for black folks. Cheating is an integral part of human nature, expressed in games or anything else, and confronting it smartly is critical to competitiveness.

Present-day blacks behave as though they do not understand cheating. The group responds to it very poorly, and practices it even more poorly - with disastrous results. Black slave ancestors would be appalled how their kin have errantly placed so much of their faith in the legal system, and lost their guile and cunning for outsmarting others. Sometimes it seems that everyone, except blacks, understand that laws and cheating walk hand-in-hand. Alternately, when today’s blacks break the rules, they too often take pleasure in doing it in plain, kiss-my-butt, sight of the authorities, making conviction, and punishment inevitable. Again, ancestors would shake their heads in wonderment.

When my backgammon strategy adjusted to take into account the cheating nature of my micro-processing opponent, I immediately began winning. The program continues to roll suspicious combinations, but rather than getting upset and calling Rev. Inc., I think about additional adjustments to my approach in order to confound the little bastard’s cheating heart. Right now, I still lose more than I win, but I have only had the game for a week and I already see how this is going to end.

Let’s be clear, I do not practice or advocate cheating, and the game maker may have simply wanted a challenging interaction, but laden herein is the lesson that cheating is a fact of life. Furthermore, we must each factor cheating adversaries into our game plan for achievement, or prepare for the short-end. Finally, no legal system, including one as good as ours, can match the cheating nature of humans, so expecting the law to deliver predictable, consistent, and fair results is simply not realistic. I think it is time for a different approach.

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE...

Technorati Tags: Black People, Backgammon and Cheating, Civil Rights, Laws, Human Nature, Acting Black, Acting White