Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, has been exposed as a blatant racist, and now he has reaped the whirlwind.
Having made disparaging and disgraceful remarks about African Americas, he has been banned for life from NBA games, practices and business discussions and fined $2.5 million.
“We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling’s’ views,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver in issuing this ban on April 29.
In an inflammatory audio recording released by the TMZ gossip site, Sterling, the league’s longest-tenured proprietor, was clearly heard telling V. Stiviano, his girlfriend, not to associate with African Americans or bring them to Clippers games. Considering the fact that Stiviano is of partial African American descent, Sterling’s racist remark was particularly stupid.
Silver had no alternative but to come down hard on Sterling, a billionaire who amassed wealth in real estate and bought the Clippers in 1981 for $12.7 million, a song by today’s standards.
With the Clippers facing a disastrous boycott of fans and players alike, the NBA had to act quickly and resolutely. Silver, only three months in office, did the right thing by rebuking and exiling Sterling and by announcing that the fine imposed on him will be donated to organizations dedicated to combating discrimination and fostering tolerance.
The NBA understands that racism has no place in a decent society, but this understanding is belated, even though most of its players are African Americans. As The New York Times noted, Sterling has a history of bigotry. In 2009, Elgin Baylor, the former general manager of the Clippers, accused him of discrimination. And in the same year, Sterling paid $2.7 million to settle a housing discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department. In 2003, Sterling got into trouble with the U.S. government by stating that he preferred not to rent to Latinos.
The NBA was surely aware of Sterling’s racist beliefs, but tolerated them and chose to remain silent. Whether he was ever reprimanded in private by the league remains to be ascertained.
When the news about Sterling broke, the NAACP, the preeminent African American civil rights organization, withdrew a lifetime achievement award it had planned to bestow on Sterling. According to columnist Frank Bruni, Sterling appeared to be a model citizen and champion of equal rights, having made charitable donations to the NAACP, placed ads in newspapers celebrating Black History Month and given children from minority backgrounds free tickets to Clippers games.
Like the NBA, the NAACP should have been far more aware of Sterling’s real views about African Americans. It may well be that the NAACP turned a blind eye to Sterling’s racism in the interests of preserving the flow of donations from him.
It’s now crystal clear that a completely different man lurked behind the benevolent facade Sterling cynically constructed. Behind it lay a person so consumed by hatred that he was willing to forego lucrative ticket revenue from African American Clippers fans.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to fathom why such a toxic view of African Americans was harboured by Sterling, a Jew whose original name was Tokowitz. Jews, the butt of prejudice and discrimination since time immemorial, should know better than to demean someone on the basis of ethnicity, color or religion. Demonization inevitably leads to violence, as the Holocaust proves beyond a doubt.
In expressing his disgusting comments, Sterling seemed oblivious to the obvious. He may be a successful businessman, but as a caring and sensitive human being, he is a complete failure and beyond the pale.
Sterling should be forced to sell the Clippers franchise and barred from professional sport.