Zeta Tau Alpha Steps on Black Achievement Button at Sprite Stepoff

If there’s anything that the Zeta Tau Alpha victory at the Sprite Stepoff National Championships should reteach us, its that white great is only surpassed by black greatest.

And that’s not a diss to Zeta Tau, or a jab at the runner up Alpha Kappa Alpha; its a reality that has been bored into the conscience of Americans in all aspects of achievement, large and small. What white folks can afford to be good at, black folks have to be breathtaking at.

I’m not a stepping aficionado, but I do know that quite a few people who claim to be claim that the AKAs wuz robbed at the big show in Atlanta. There’s video tape that may or may not substantiate these claims. And the bigger point is not of which group was the more entertaining or precise unit, but the culture of why judges were primed to look at the only white entrants to make the finals as the most entertaining or precise unit.

Zeta Tau should have nothing taken away from them or their performance, and neither should the AKAs. But this outcome for Zeta Tau is not unlike the attention and expectations we heap upon tremendous white singers, athletes, and entertainers. When it comes to the few things in which black people have been granted the clemency of excellency, when white people infiltrate these areas, they are celebrated by both sides alike.

These soulful white folks are champions for the fences. Blacks and whites can agree, Celine Dion can sing her behind off. Both sides can agree that Steve Nash is a pretty good point guard. And both sides can agree that Vince Vaughn is pretty funny.

And when the time comes to gauge achievement among these subcultures, we tend to side with the underdog white guy or gal. Not because they are or aren’t better, and not because we are condition to elevate them above us in the way history has elevated them above us in everything else. It’s because black folks and white folks can all identify with a feel good, underdog story.

And that’s what happened with Zeta Tau at the Sprite Stepoff. Whether they were better at stepping or not, the story line for the competition is that they never were supposed to be there. White girls aren’t supposed to have that kind of rhythm in a art form that black folks perfected. So the judges went with the best storyline.

And don’t get it twisted. In like circumstances, white folks would’ve given us the gold for being that capable in and obdurate, stacked-against-us scenario. Barack Obama in the White House and Jay-Z in Yankee Stadium can vouch for it.

I’m not saying its fair or insurmountable, it’s just history. Zeta Tau Alpha made it yesterday in Atlanta, and there will be others on both sides to make the same kind of history going forward. It matches up perfectly for the only American story line greater than oppression and capitalism put together.

The story of the underdog.