What do a Jewish banker and a Black athlete have in common? They both make great stories if you like stereotypes. There’s nothing like a little racial profiling to make complicated stories simple.

Let’s look at Blankfein and Goldman Sachs first. They are being charged by the SEC with a crime that increasingly seems to have been a common and perfectly legal practice. News stories routinely acknowledge that the SEC would have trouble actually winning if the case went to trial. But Goldman  is likely to enter some form of plea agreement anyway, to avoid further vilification. In Tiger’s case, there isn’t even an allegation he commited a crime, except a highly speculative possibility he may have been driving under the influence. Yet he’s been publicly criticized for everything from his conduct on the golf course to his comments to the media, with comparisons made between his case and OJ Simpson’s trial for double murder.

The details of Tiger’s liasions or Goldman’s deals aren’t pretty. But they aren’t illegal, or even that different from business or pleasure as usual. What they are is complicated — and unlike simple stereotypes, that doesn’t get blood boiling or remotes clicking. But then again, simple doesn’t resolve  financial or cultural crises. Complicated just might.