Donald Sterling

[Tonus]

I am not asking anyone to feel sorry for this guy, I am sure he wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire, but it seems like his girlfriend set him up (that's why she was recording him, shouldn't we be talking about her character?) getting him upset so he would say something stupid.

I believe that she did just that, try to draw him out while secretly recording him in order to hurt him. Nothing in this situation puts her in a good light, and she will probably escape having to answer a lot of very uncomfortable questions by the simple fact that her pimp daddy wound up taking all of the spotlight.

There may be issues of privacy to be hashed out here, but my point is that the NBA was put in a spot (by circumstances outside of its control) and it has bylaws written to help them deal with it. It's not the NBA's fault that Donald Sterling is a racist jerk, nor that his mistress may be a scheming whore. A shit storm was dropped into their lap, and they are dealing with it in a manner that one would expect of a company seeking to protect its brand when one of its executives shoves his whole leg into his mouth.

[vorlon13]

What i think happened is his ex-golddigger girlfriend set him up. Got him jealous and that's when he said those things but for a supposewd racist to go out with a black girlfirend does not make sense and he did not even use the"N" word. I think he was frustrated with and said those things. He is no more racist than most. The NBA wil just use him for their purposes, A few on this forum seem to be angry becasue Sterling is super rich, that is sad.

manowar

Use of the "N" word is not a litmus test for racism.

Antebellum masters had relations with female slaves. Knowing this, would you argue that slave owners weren't racist?

I think you're being a little superficial in your evaluation.

I'm wondering how many of those slave owners, however, were 'sharing' their slave/concubine with the field worker(s). This particular case of Sterling's take on things is, IMO, bizarre. His list of what is and isn't OK for her to do, along with what he is doing, defies my ability to figure out whether he is more racist or senile or has an addiction problem.

(there are just so many angles to this mess that induce revulsion, erf)

[BrokenQuill92]

Use of the "N" word is not a litmus test for racism.

Antebellum masters had relations with female slaves. Knowing this, would you argue that slave owners weren't racist?

I think you're being a little superficial in your evaluation.

I'm wondering how many of those slave owners, however, were 'sharing' their slave/concubine with the field worker(s). This particular case of Sterling's take on things is, IMO, bizarre. His list of what is and isn't OK for her to do, along with what he is doing, defies my ability to figure out whether he is more racist or senile or has an addiction problem.

(there are just so many angles to this mess that induce revulsion, erf)

It's more the same of white men making exotic pets out of WoC (while holding us in contempt) and being covertly antognistic towards MoC. I could have easily explained this as woman of color. Especially as a lighter skinned woman of color.

---

You guys should go read Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl

[TaraJo]

I'm just amazed Sterling hasn't done a better job of damage control. How much does he depend on black peope as customers? Many of his employees are black, including many of his most publicly visible ones, the players on his team. He's gotta know that these comments are going to hurt him financially, right?

A few organizations he had made donations to have given his money back. I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. Esentially, they're just giving money to a bigot; I'd rather take his money and put it to good use.

[BrokenQuill92]

I'm just amazed Sterling hasn't done a better job of damage control. How much does he depend on black peope as customers? Many of his employees are black, including many of his most publicly visible ones, the players on his team. He's gotta know that these comments are going to hurt him financially, right?

A few organizations he had made donations to have given his money back. I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. Esentially, they're just giving money to a bigot; I'd rather take his money and put it to good use.

Except prejudice doesn't extend to the wallet much, you hate someone all you like but if they bring you profit of some sort you'll usually keep your mouth shut.

[TaraJo]

Except prejudice doesn't extend to the wallet much, you hate someone all you like but if they bring you profit of some sort you'll usually keep your mouth shut.

In this case, that doesn't seem to be happening. The Clippers players lined up, in unity, protesting to what their boss said. Not to mention, his customers will speak with their wallet by not buying his merchandise or going to his games.

[BrokenQuill92]

Except prejudice doesn't extend to the wallet much, you hate someone all you like but if they bring you profit of some sort you'll usually keep your mouth shut.

In this case, that doesn't seem to be happening. The Clippers players lined up, in unity, protesting to what their boss said. Not to mention, his customers will speak with their wallet by not buying his merchandise or going to his games.

I never said he wouldn't say anything in private which he did, the asshat just got caught!

[Neo-Scholastic]

Once again, the reality of the situation is that the comments got out. If you are advocating that if someone says some irresponsible and terrible shit in private, then it gets out by shady means, that the entire collective world should just say, "I don't care because it was clear he didn't mean for it to get out," well that is just ridiculous.

The man's statements affected other people's ability to make money. The fact that those amounts are in the billions makes it all the more reason why he gets ousted. If you break the rules, even in private, but get caught, you still get punished.

You want a world of thought police. The fact is that his private beliefs did not noticeably have any effect on his public actions. The NAACP was prepared to offer him an award before all this.

We live in a different world then just a couple years ago. Privacy is gone...for everyone. As a society, we need to reflect more about how much latitude we give people in the privacy of their own minds.

Should we stop giving tenure to professors that ask uncomfortable questions? How about the voting booth? If it came out that Wasserman-Schultz voted for a couple Republicans should she be forces to step down? Is adultery really a disqualufier for public office? Should you lose your job because of a tweet your boss doesn't like. Calling for the resignation of anyone that deviates from public consensus in their personal life leads to witch hunts and blacklists.

[SteelCurtain]

You want a world of thought police. The fact is that his private beliefs did not noticeably have any effect on his public actions. The NAACP was prepared to offer him an award before all this.

We live in a different world then just a couple years ago. Privacy is gone...for everyone. As a society, we need to reflect more about how much latitude we give people in the privacy of their own minds.

Should we stop giving tenure to professors that ask uncomfortable questions? How about the voting booth? If it came out that Wasserman-Schultz voted for a couple Republicans should she be forces to step down? Is adultery really a disqualufier for public office? Should you lose your job because of a tweet your boss doesn't like. Calling for the resignation of anyone that deviates from public consensus in their personal life leads to witch hunts and blacklists.

What? Where did you get that from what I said?

You are conflating my defense of the NBA's actions to protect it's bottom line to thinking that a professor that asks a tough question should be ousted?

He has every right to have his opinions. When his opinions affect other people, those people also have the right to distance themselves from those opinions by whatever means they see fit. He wasn't called to resign. He was told that he was no longer welcome as an owner in the NBA, because his comments were damaging to the NBA's image, not just his own. I am half black, if my boss or the owner of the company I work for said these comments, whether he meant for them to get out or not, I would seriously consider joining together with the other black employees in my company and do something. That is my free speech. When you have a 'company' whose employees are disproportionately black, and you disproportionately rely on their performance to make money, you protect those employees' interests disproportionately.

[Tonus]

You want a world of thought police. The fact is that his private beliefs did not noticeably have any effect on his public actions. The NAACP was prepared to offer him an award before all this.

The bold portion may be the most bizarre thing in the whole case. Sterling's private views may have had an effect on his public actions, seeing as he was sued twice (in 2003 and 2006) for acts of housing discrimination. The latter suit was brought by the US Department of Justice. He settled both cases, one confidentially and one with a multi-million dollar fine, but denied wrongdoing in either case.

Did the NAACP not know about his past?

The privacy issue is the part of this that won't get much attention because it led to the "outing" and punishment of a generally disagreeable man who made disgusting and indefensible comments. But it bears pointing out (again) that he isn't being prosecuted by the government for comments he made in private company. He's been suspended and may be forced to sell his team under NBA bylaws that he agreed to abide by.

It will be interesting to see if he will challenge the suspension (which puts him, to say the least, in an awkward situation) or the demand to sell the team (assuming it gets the expected support from the other owners). There has been an article or two that suggested that the NBA was well aware of what kind of person Sterling was for many years, and had hoped that he would pass away before they were forced to take a stand against him, and they might not be very happy that they're pulled into this situation because some floozy learned how to record audio with her iPhone.