(April 30, 2014 at 9:04 pm)Tonus Wrote:(April 30, 2014 at 11:44 am)Manowar Wrote: Yeah, but a litmus test for racism might be if you have a black girlfriend, like he did, might mean you are not racist, just my opinion.Correction: his black mistress. One of many, apparently, which he had no qualms about flaunting.
As for the actions taken against him by the NBA, they are acting within the bylaws that were accepted (indeed, ruled upon) by the owners of the 30 teams. Which includes Donald Sterling. I understand the concern over the fact that this was a private conversation that was leaked to the press, possibly with the intent of harming him. But there are a few things to keep in mind. For one, this is not a case where he blurted out the n-word or made an offhand stereotypical remark. He is warning his BLACK/LATINO mistress against "bringing blacks" to his arena, and demanded that she take any photos with other blacks in them off of her Instagram account. This is not exactly a man who gives a fuck about anyone else's right to privacy and "freedom of speech."
Second, the NBA doesn't have much of a choice in the matter once the tapes go public due to the content. They have a brand to protect, and the same rich old white guys who looked the other way in the past (when Sterling's offensive words and actions didn't blow up in the press) couldn't afford to do so now. They may even see it as an opportunity to portray themselves as sensitive on the issue (in fairness, the NBA seems to have at least three minority owners and one fairly young and liberal owner whose team is most appropriately named the Mavericks). Sterling has been a lousy human being for a long time, and a lousy NBA owner for a long time. The NBA knows that they can only really do something about the latter.
TL;DR-- racist shitbag human who happens to be the owner of a pro sports team makes nasty, disturbing racist comments to his young, half-black mistress just before he dumps her, and pays a much larger price than he anticipated. I --and apparently a lot of other people-- are having a bit of trouble working up any sympathy for him.
There has been some interesting points of view here. 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 know no one here agrees with me but if you say something like he did in his home like he does not care for black people that is his business. If what he said was said openly I would have no problem with banning him.
PS I better turn off all the recording devices in my home LOL
manowar
