Many of us have now heard the racist thoughts and words of Billionaire NBA Clippers owner Donald Sterling. If you haven’t heard them, you can listen to the full dialogue between him and his ex-mistress here. In a nut shell, Sterling thinks and feels blacks are lessor then and that’s just the way the world is.
“It’s the world! You go to Israel, the blacks are just treated like dogs” he says at one point during their conversation. Keep in mind these things were said in private and not in a public forum. So what should happen to him as an NBA franchise owner employing a predominate staff of black men? Many are saying he should lose the team and be voted out. That’s how I emotional feel but it isn’t necessarily that black and white. Think about this, we say things in private conversation all the time that we would not say in public; so should you lose your job over it, if it ever became public?
Update: Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA Commission and given a $2.5 million fine.
Tell us what you think.
I don’t care that his conversation was private. Yes, it’s unfortunate that a personal conversation was recorded and used against him, it would suck for anyone to be in that situation and have their privacy violated in such a way; in that regard I am remorseful because no one deserves that.
That being said regardless of the circumstances surrounding the conversation he still spoke candidly about how he felt about black people, it’s out there and now we all need to address it.
But how do you “punish” a rich, racists, old white man? Being racist isn’t against the law, it’s just mostly frowned upon, you can say you don’t like black people, it’s not right, but there’s nothing you can really do.
Hell most of the time attempting to punish racist people for being racist only reinforces their beliefs.
Taking the team from him would be a good start, who wants to work for a man that you now know for a fact thinks you are a sub-par human?
But lets be clear; he’s not sorry and he will have learned nothing from this. All we can do is single him out and keep him away from us lowly creatures for as long as possible until he dies.
Sad thing is most people don’t care what someone thinks of them, long as they’re getting paid. smh
That ignorant asshole does not deserve all that he seems to have in this world. He should be forced to sell the team at the least. Disgusting, vile, evil poor excuse for a human being. (BTW, I happen to be caucasian)
Cool Banned for Life from NBA
I think they did the right thing. It’s unfortunate for him that his private conversation with his alleged jump off became public, but this guy deserved this banned. It is common knowledge amongst his colleges that this guy is a racist. The thing is they never had hard evidence like this recording, he probably paid some folks off too sweep it under the rug. Either way, They should have dealt with him a while ago. Him being an franchise owner and making racists remarks in a sport thats probably about 90% black just looks bad.
They banned him and fined him 2.5 mill, this means he isn’t allowed to go to the games and be involved in making team decisions, like hiring players,coaches, ect.. He still gets revenue from the team though. I doubt if they can legally take a team that he legally owns, away from him. Unless there is some kind of committee of other NBA team owners, who can vote him out in situations such as this one. even then they would just force him to sale the team, and he still gets paid regardless.
Sidenote: The NBA and the NFL is just a new form of slavery anyway in my opinion.
Someone else I know feels like you with how NBA & NFL are new forms of slavery… interesting viewpoint.
the view that the NFL and NBA are new forms of slavery is asinine and I hate when black people compare the two. What basis do you have for making such a claim? Are the players in these leagues forced to play uncompensated for life? From my knowledge this is not the case. So to compare their efforts to slavery is an affront to real slaves. grow up.
I think the right thing was done. However, I notice the distinct change in attitudes when someone is punished for racism versus being anti-gay.
Its a lose-lose scenario. Forcing him to sell the team still means he makes money at the end of the day. Not too many ways to “punish” an old billionaire.
JIM CROW is still alive and well and wearing True Religion Jeans and Sean John! Don Sterling is but one of many who feel and believe the same way! So very SAD in the 21st Century. We may no longer be on plantation, but its still treated as if we are and its even more sad when many only are concerned about the $$$ money!!! smh…
Racism is as bright as the sun!!!
He’s despicable! From the looks of his pic, the courts should force him to have a C-section and permanently take his baby away from him!!!
The thing being “tip toed” around in this issue is the fact that Donald STERLING is JEWISH. It’s like everybody is scared to say he’s JEWISH. Why? IMAGINE that, he’s a RACIST JEW. The nerve of him. So much for the “GREAT” relationship between “jews and Blacks.” I thought we had such a “love in” with jews.” The nerve of a Jew to HATE people for the COLOR of their skin? I wander how I feel about the “holocaust” now? Maybe it never happened? After all if you are of a group of people who repeatedly cries about what “Hitler” did to us, then you have a Billion dollars and decide that you can HATE other people…. GO FIGURE. Sad state of affairs. Black People should start mentioning the fact that STERLING IS JEWISH! That oughta set tongues to WAGGIN’!
My dude, NYC is FULL of racist Jewish people. If they could get rid of everyone else (or force them into service work to benefit them) they would do it in a heartbeat.
How does his Jewish heritage have anything to do with his ignorant comments?
His heritage makes this situation ironic. What would mentioning his heritage solve?
The interesting thing is that the recorded conversation is probably the least racist scandalous thing hes said. This is the guy who called his team a bunch of niggers, wanted a “plantation-style” structure, said the black tenants in his building were smelly…yet none of those things were the tipping point for him being scrutinized for his racism.
Having said that, should a racist be allowed to be the owner of a predominantly black team? Absolutely not. Even if the information that sparked it all was gathered privately, it (along with his history) reveals a clear cut bias against the people he’s employed. How can he be reasonably expected to treat them fairly? It would be like if I manage a staff that’s 80% Latino, and someone hears me talking to a friend about spics and border jumpers. There’s no way I can expected to be non-discriminatory to my employees, and as such I shouldn’t be in that position anymore.