Donald Sterling Racist Comments
There is a question floating around in the NBA (aka the National Basketball Association) community right now. Should Donald Sterling be banned for his racist comments? Yes, I think he should. What he said was not excusable even though he comes from a generation where saying those things is okay. He attempted to get his girlfriend to take pictures off Instagram because “she was publicizing the fact she was walking with a black man.” In his interview on CNN he said the following. “ That’s the one problem I have. Jews when they get successful they will help their people and some African-Americans-- maybe I’ll get in trouble again… they don’t want to help anybody.”
What all was said? Sterling told his girlfriend, V. Stiviano “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.” If that’s not racist I don’t know what is. He doesn’t want black people at his games. He claims he isn’t racist and it’s “just part of the culture.” That doesn’t even make sense, even coming from the generation he did. I just do not believe that what he has said can be dismissed easily.
Cliff Paul, who claims to be a brother of the Clippers’ Chris Paul, had bugged Sterling’s office for years. When George Zimmerman, the person convicted of killing Trayvon Martin, was acquitted to the conversations, Sterling allegedly said “Buy that guy a beer.” According to these documents, he also went to IHOP with Paula Deen, a cooking show host, just to laugh at black dishwashers. I’m not sure if this is true though. Could Cliff Paul be making all this up for money and fame? Who knows? It’s just what he ...
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...ling, he sounded terrible. "Oh man, when I talked to him ... he felt terrible.” McNall continues on to say, "I mean he was like 'What an idiot I am. I don't know what I was thinking or doing." It is very believable that Donald Sterling feels awful about what he said, since he basically ruined his and his girlfriend’s life by making the racist comments.
Donald Sterling has made several racist comments, trying to get his girlfriend to get minorities out of her public life and trying to get her to stop bringing any minorities to Los Angeles Clippers games. He has supposedly made comments about Shaquille O’Neal, Beyonce, Chris Paul, and Kim Kardashian. He has also attacked Magic Johnson for having AIDS. He has hurt his image so much and regrets all his choices, however, he deserves to be banned if he won’t even pay his fine with a net worth of $1.9 billion.
And more likely than not the next Jordan, and there will be one (just maybe not in basketball), will probably not want to put their entire career and reputation at risk even if it can benefit their entire race. People are motivated out of self-interest, and want to win. Rhoden really wants to believe that all black athletes are selfless and want the best for their community and race. But to expect this is really ludicrous. Kobe truly believes that the ends justifies the means. If he shoots the ball 3 for 21 on any given night but his third make happens to be a game winner, Kobe is a happy man. And if that means that he is hard to play with and teammates do not get along with him, then so be it. In Kobe 's words, “Friends come and go but banners hang
...meant to harm them. Staples has been misjudged by the White woman, she put wrong images on him because he is a black. The outside people won’t understand all of the feelings inside a person who has been discriminated from someone, the misjudgments and untrue information is ruining an honor of the discrimination victim.
Bill Russell grew up in an extremely racist time in America in an extremely racist state. Born in Louisiana and raised both there and in Oakland, California; Russell and his family battled the every day hardships that most black people faced at that time. But Russell always had a set of morals and guidelines that he led his life by, many of which he learned from his father, who he says was his hero and biggest role model. These morals revolved around independence and a very classic “ I will not allow anyone to impose their will on me.” (Page 56, paragraph 1) These morals followed and shaped him in his playing and coaching career.
...ent 19 years in jail last time he was wrongfully arrested, was extremely angry. "I am so furious that what happened simply because I was wearing a jacket and I am black he said after his release (Personal Interview).
On April 24th 2014, the entertainment television channel TMZ released an audio record of a conversation between Donald Sterling, the owner of the professional basketball team Los Angeles Clippers, and his girlfriend. In the conversation, Sterling expressed his extreme racism towards the African Americans. He specifically told his girlfriend, “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that… and not to bring them to my games.” Sterling’s recorded conversation immediately invoked a series of protesting reactions from a great deal of public figures within and outside the basketball field. Five days after the recording tape was released, on April 30th 2014, Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, announced that Sterling would be banned from NBA games for life, and most likely would be forced to sell the Clippers. Silver stated, “We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling’s views. They simply have no place in the NBA.”
After his apology, he met a black businessman, Rock Newman. Newman felt Greaseman was sorry. He got him interview after interview to prove to every he was sorry. Black media figures grilled him which is so understandable. Black Entertainment Television (BET) asked its viewers what Greaseman could do to prove he was sorry. Nearly three-quarters of viewers said "nothing." John Thompson, WTEM sports-talk host, suggested he seek counseling. Greaseman wanted to apologize to the congregation at Union Temple, but the Rev Willie Wilson wouldn 't let him. It just proved you can’t say stuff like that and expect to be forgiven. He did go through great length to try to get forgiveness but is it because he genuinely wanted to be forgiven or was it because he really wanted work? And sadly, this man was granted work in 2008. It’s almost it was forgiven but something that can never be
When Jr and Rowdy where friends, when Jr would mention a white person Rowdy would get mad at Jr for talking about white people. Also when Jr changed schools Rowdy would not have gotten mad if he was moving schools if he liked white people. This shows that Rowdy hates white people, with a good reason, white people have shamed on first nations for a long time so it would make sense for him be mad at white people. This affects Jr because he and Rowdy are best friends but when Jr goes to a white school their friendship is over because his hate for white people is more is worth more than his love for Jr. Rowdy is a very good basketball player. He dropped 50 on Jr’s team the first time they met, but the second time they met rowdy got shut down by Jr. And he has led his team to victory. With rowdy being this shows that it was hard for Jr to guard him, he is a good ball player and that society sees him as a good red skin ball player. This affects Jr because he has to guard him and fight him in the game of the finals to win, Jr is not the biggest ball player,but this did not affect him against Rowdy the
Jeff Greenfield cites in his essay “The Black and White Truth about Basketball” theories from the book Foul by David Wolf. In today’s modern game of NBA basketball, over 2/3 of the players are black. Greenfield also cites that over the last two decades, no more than three white players have been among the ten starting players on the NBA All-Star team (Greenfield 209). David Wolf claims this dominance of blacks in the NBA is due to a natural inheritance. Wolf says basketball is a pastime of the urban poor since the fact most of them don’t have finances to access equipment for hockey, baseball, football, or other fairly expensive sports. And basketball is something they can feel pride about (Greenfield 210-211). Most of the urban poor are the black. And black star Penny Hardaway is a prime example of this.
...ks and racial slurs in the workplace, we can somewhat satisfy those who clamor for an outright ban on racism. By not allowing this type of speech to be criminalized, we stand by our First Amendment rights and continue to allow freedom of expression. By offering each side this compromised solution we can not only help to phase racism out of our society, but also protect our unalienable rights.
Many people believe that professional athletes are “above the law”. In reality, they are human beings like you and me who, no matter what the circumstances, can and will be charged like an average person. The offense of the crime can certainly come into play on whether or not a professional athlete who commits a crime should be allowed to play again.
For a man in his position, Sterling has the ability to be an influence, and enough money to effect communities around him. Hence he should not have put himself in a situation like this as it could hurt a lot of people. Therefore, the banning of Donald Sterling by the NBA, with the help of commissioner Adam Silver, the collective agreement of team owners, and the voice of the players, was ethically adequate since it delivered the best punishment possible.
The National Basketball Association is the most popular professional basketball league in North America; it is also the most popular professional basketball league in the world. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most diverse businesses in the world, which was the deliberate plan of former NBA commissioner David Stern. The NBA was once an all white and male dominated league, now through years of an aggressive effort to diversify the organization the NBA is now one of the shining beacons for diversity, tolerance and acceptance in the workplace. Former NBA commissioner David Stern spearheaded and put into action on the best examples of creating and cultivation opportunities for success based on merit. “When David Stern steps down as NBA Commissioner in 2014, among the legacies he will have created is an era in professional sport when leagues and teams hired the best people possible. He embraced the moral imperative for diversity while helping to show the other leagues that diversity is also a business imperative. The evidence for the NBA’s continued commitment to racial equality is seen in the strong grades in the League Office and in many key areas on the team level.”(Lapchick, R.) To fully understand the transformation of the league we will cover the history of the association, team diversity, league diversity, the NBA diversity initiative, and current diversity issues.
Even though many organizations claim to be about equality and respect for their players and even their spectators—of color. It becomes evident that respect and equality is not the priority of the organization, which are headed by majority White males. For example, in 2014, the Atlanta Hawks, a sport organization with a roster majority of young Black men and its fans being nearly 70 percent Black came under criticism and investigation for racist comments made via email and phone conference. The racist comments that were made were by former Hawks owner, Bruce Levenson, and Hawks GM, Danny Ferry; Both White men. Both Levenson and Ferry were involved in two race controversies. Former Atlanta Hawks’ owner Bruce Levenson sent out an email to other Hawks CEOs stating that the audience and it entertainment (the team, cheerleaders, halftime talent, music selection, etc.) are all Black. Levenson continued to say in his email that because the audience and entertainment were majority Black, it was scaring aware White fans and investors from coming to the games (Joesph, 2014, USA Today. On the other hand, Hawks’ GM Danny Ferry was recorded during a conference call making defamatory remakes about free agent, at the time, Luol Deng who the Hawks were trying to acquire. During the call, Ferry professes that “ ‘[Deng] has a little African in him’ ”(ESPN.com). In the
Professional sport heiress Christina Floyd was showing the film team around South Hampton which is considered the playground of the rich. One notable point in the movie is when they were touring the tennis courts and a person asked if a black man was a member. She replied that he was probably a pro, clearly defining that black people are not well accepted at the club. She even stated that the Jewish people she brought with her to lunch may not have been acceptable. This implies that with money come bigotry, racism and privilege that make it clear that certain people are excluded and if expected behaviors are broken there will be
Jackie Robinson was a prominent figure in American history as he broke the color line, and was the first black athlete to play in a white league. Americans believed this would stop racism in the future and integrate all sports, but racism has planted its roots in sports ever since 1947. The NBA is a professional basketball league and has been very popular in the United States since its creation. The sport is enjoyed by all races although most of the players are of African American race. During recent events, L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling was caught making racist remarks in an audio recording. He was frustrated that his girlfriend was hanging with other African Americans, even the great NBA legend Magic Johnson. He wanted her not to bring African Americans to his games and not to broadcast it on Instagram. He stated, " Yeah, it bothers me a lot that you want to promo-broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to (Sterling)?" He also complained, " But why publicize it on the Instagram and why bring it to my games (Sterling)?" After the release of the recordings, the NBA community was in an uproar. In protest, the player of the Clippers wore their training jerseys inside out (Moore). As a result, Adam Silver , commissioner of the NBA, banned Donald Sterling for life. Sterling could not attend nor part...