by B. R. GOWANI
http://youtu.be/6Ogstl6OrNs
Donald Sterling, a billionaire, is into real estate business and is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, a professional basketball franchise of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In 1981, he had bought the Clippers for $12.5 million; its current value is $575 million. Recently, he has been in the news for his covert hatred of the colored people, because of the leaked audio recordings which contain a conversation between Donald Sterling and his girlfriend V. Stiviano. After listening to the tapes 1 & 2, there is no room left for any doubt that Donald Sterling is a hardcore racist.
But Sterling is not a new racist on the block; he has a history of racist actions and utterances. In 2005, to settle a lawsuit, he had to pay an undisclosed amount plus $5 million in attorney’s fees. The suit involved the Korean residents living in his apartments in Los Angels’s Korea Town. Then in 2006, the United States Department of Justice charged him with discrimination against children, Hispanics, and blacks. The lawsuit was settled in 2009 when he paid $2.7 million.
This week, at a news conference, the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced an imposition of a $2.5 million fine and a lifetime ban against Sterling. Because of the ban he’ll have to sell his franchise and can fetch as much as $1 billion. It was well known that Sterling is a racist but no action against him was taken. Silver was asked about it.
Q. The word you used specifically was outrage. You said that you were personally outraged, yet many people believe that they are outraged that for years people have known that this man is a racist slumlord and the NBA hasn’t done anything until today. Can you please answer why.
ADAM SILVER: I can’t speak to past actions other than to say that when specific evidence was brought to the NBA, we acted.
But please don’t ask Silver about Sterling’s past actions because NBA acts on specific evidence. Similar kind of explanations will be coming from many other hypocrites. Not to forget the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which had given an award to Sterling a few years back and was going to give a second one last month but had to changed its decision after the Stiviano affair. But the NAACP Los Angeles president Leon Jenkins talked about forgiveness:
“God teaches us to forgive, and the way I look at it, after a sustained period of proof to the African American community that those words don’t reflect his heart, I think there’s room for forgiveness. I wouldn’t be a Christian if I said there wasn’t.”
“We are negotiating with him about giving more moneys to African American students at UCLA, and so we are in preliminary discussions.”
Why bring in the God for such a minor offense? Where there’s money, there’s always room in any part of the world to be forgiven. Money can wash off any sin or can install the president the moneyed class wants to. But it’s nice if the money is used to help students. NAACP should try to get as much money as it can.
Wells Fargo Bank had gotten its sins washed by NAACP when it agreed to do “financial literacy” classes for youth with NAACP. Its crime, like that of Bank of America, was screwing up tens of thousands of black homeowners through illegal foreclosures.
Meanwhile, the UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) is returning back $425,000 to Sterling which he had donated to support basic kidney research by the UCLA Division of Nephrology. It also rejected the remainder of a $3-million pledge.
It’s a sad spectacle. Few people control so much wealth and others depend on them for charities and money for research and thousands of other important projects. Much worse than Sterling’s comments is the fact that he has control over so much money.
Sterling’s problem
We may curse or make fun of Sterling, but we also have to recognize that he is a sick person and needs either psychosocial rehabilitation and/or clinical neuropsychology. Every now and then one may come across people who have some or other bias or prejudice against some of other group of people. But many people learn to tolerate and accept “others” after coming in close contact with them or when family or friend/s calm them down by helping them to understand “others.” And many of them never change but they don’t make such a big fuss. And when they do make, then it’s a time to accept the problem.
Sterling’s girlfriend Stiviano is a biracial (Hispanic and black), that is, colored woman. From the conversation, it is clear that Sterling likes her, perhaps loves her, but wants her in a subservient manner, the way he owns his black players. He has gifted her with cars, duplex, and money worth over $2 million. He doesn’t mind her keeping colored friends or going out with them. At one point he tells her she can go and sleep with them. But he just doesn’t want her to broadcast her friendship with them or to bring them to the games. He is mad at her for getting her black friends’ pictures, including that of Los Angeles Lakers Magic Johnson, on her instagram.
“Don’t put him on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me.” “And don’t bring him to my games.”
The situation becomes more clear when he talks about the cultural pressure.
“… We don’t evaluate what’s right and wrong, we live in a society. We live in a culture. We have to live within that culture.”
“I’m living in a culture, and I have to live within the culture.”
Then he tells her about his powerlessness to bring about any change.
“I don’t want to change the culture, because I can’t. It’s too big and too [unknown.”
Now this is most revealing. It is also the “culture,” that is, the culture he moves around in, that is racist. Now these must be his multimillionaire and billionaire friends and relatives, can’t be all of them but no doubt a substantial number of them. It’s sad thing but it’s also a fact. The United States has still a long way to go.
Their fight also bring in Israel and its treatment of black Jews. This time Sterling speaks 100% truth.
Stiviano’s question,
“And are the black Jews less than the white Jews?”
To which Sterling replies:
“A hundred percent, fifty, a hundred percent.”
There is nothing about the similar treatment of Palestinians by the Israelis. But more recordings are to be released. May be, we’ll hear something about them in those tapes.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com