Let me speak plainly, I believe the
hullabaloo over the moronic owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling,
is stupid. While I certainly do not
agree with his apparent views on race and ethnicity and I, like so many others,
believe they were uttered out of complete stupidity, I also do not find them
particularly hurtful or surprising.
First, I believe it is important to
consider the source. This is an old man
running around with a much, much younger gold digger: this guy is not exactly
one we should look to for wisdom on any subject other than how to purchase an
undervalued franchise and potentially make anywhere from $500 million to $1
billion off it when forced to sell said franchise. By and large, Donald Sterling does not matter
unless he does something stupid or makes a donation to the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP..
Second, this man has a history of incidents involving prejudice and
bigotry. Click here
to listen to Bomani Jones give a brilliant take on this entire situation. This is far from his first go-round with
unacceptable comments or behavior.
Finally, I believe racism is far more prevalent in our society than what
many people would care to admit.
Prejudice and bigotry plays a role in each of our lives every moment of
every day. It will continue to do so,
and become more difficult to eliminate, due to our failure to properly and adequately
address this issue. Folks this issue is
the elephant in the room that we all do our best to ignore. Thus, I do not find what he said to be
particularly surprising.
Our nation would be much better
served by discussing the soft racism of low expectations our society holds for
people of color. This soft racism is
prevalent in all segments of our nation and many people of color hold it just as
strongly as others do. Donald Sterling
is an idiot, but he is an idiot that will go away. The real danger is the racism that goes
unnoticed and unaddressed and is allowed to permeate the very fabric of our
culture.
