Duke Lacrosse Guys 5, The Man 0.

I am not one of those black people who keeps a racial scorecard.

I used to. When OJ went down, my initial thinking was, "Good, one for us." But it took time, maturity and experience for me to realize that, bottom line, two people were dead. That's what gets lost in all of this. (For the record, I believe OJ did it or, at the very least, knew who did. But I also believe, based on the evidence, he should have been set free.)

Anyway, initially, I was one of the people who jumped to hella conclusions about the Duke lacrosse boys. I thought: Rich. White. Duke. Black. Women. Strippers. Marginalized. Privilege. It's a wrap. They did it.

But over time, we saw what the deal was, and I've wrote and said publicly, those dudes deserve apologies from a whole lotta people. It's not a shock that there black people who bristle at the guys being found innocent. Not because they don't believe it, but because the Duke lacrosse boys were immediately pumped up to hero status. I've had black folks e-mailing me nonstop wondering why Kobe Bryant doesn't get the same hero treatment as the Duke lacrosse guys. Admittedly, every time I write about KB, I get tons of e-mails calling him a rapist. People look at 24 like he's still guilty. The Duke boys, meanwhile, have become martyrs.

The Duke boys and Paris Hilton has given us an interesting insight when it comes to justice. It just seems to me, that white folks slide so much easier into the martyr role than black folks. Routinely I read about some black man who got let free after 20-some years in the hole. But it seems that whenever black people get the benefit of the doubt from the justice system or trump it, we're still looked at as guilty. OJ Simpson and Robert Blake. Duke boys and Kobe. Even when exonerated, black people are never free of public perception.

And it almost seems as if when white folks are falsely accused, there is an extraordinary effort to make sure everything is fully restored. Take the Duke lacrosse guys. None of them will have a problem getting a job. (And oh, by the way, at Fortune 500 companies, the majority of execs are former college lacrosse guys.) A few of them resumed their collegiate career at other Ivy-league institutions. They've been on 60 minutes. A book is due out soon. The NCAA restored a year of their eligibility, as well as all of their old teammates. Now, the prosecutor who wrongly came after them is aboutt o be disbarred.

So add that up on the scorecard. That's a lot of justice.

Look as much shit as OJ gets, the real truth is that the L.A. prosecutors were overmatched and didn't do their jobs. Me and some other people -- both white and black -- were discussing the case recently and white people fail to admit there were some holes in the case. If the lead cop on the investigation is an utter racist, it's impossible for you not to question his judgment. Again, I think OJ at the very least had something to do with it, but, um, how come the prosecution didn't follow up on the fact there was another shoeprint at the murder scene? See, little stuff like that will get you beat in a court of law.

Anyway, Nifong deserves to get disbarred. But when you look at what's happened in the last year, just about every wrong has been righted. Amazing. Then I look at Genarlow Wilson, the kid from Georgia who is doing 10 years in the slammer for consensual oral sex, and you wonder about the ol' justice scorecard. When he gets released, I wonder if he'll become a martyr, too. Doubtful.