I’m pretty stunned that he was banned for life. I predicted a 1-year suspension. After 30 years of this guy working the same schtick, with ample opportunities to wave the banhammer, I’m thinking the reason he got banned was because Adam Silver had to prove that he wasn’t soft. If he fumbled his first crisis he would have had credibility problems for the rest of his tenure. Those doubts don’t exist anymore.
Not that Sterling didn’t deserve it. He did. But he’s deserved it for a very long time. I didn’t think the NBA bigwigs had it in them.
I openly admitted that I had not heard the whole recording and apologized for making a comment beforehand. At this point, you do not want to win any argument you simply want to badger thinking you are being cute by being selective in your reading. I am not impressed.
If I state my stance is that all racism should be treated harshly and equally, you either agree or disagree, anything else including personal attacks is simply you being an arrogant prick.
So congrats, you win tough guy you are the better internet asshole.
Since I do not do anonymous message board fights so I will remove myself from the “dialogue”.
It’s pretty clear it’s not a fact given Jay-Z has never said such a thing, and that he likely wouldn’t. Either way, your whole premise is foolish. Once again:
Jay-Z is not a 5 percenter.
He wasn’t an owner at the time he wore the chain
The NBA has no power to fine fans who espouse unpopular beliefs.
You should just drop this idea that the two things are analogous at all.
Well no, you started off by saying it was a well-known fact. Which it clearly is not. Then you went on about this documentary you saw somewhere that substantiated this. Again, given you were wrong about this being a known to most, why should anyone assume you are accurately describing what you saw given you cannot even recall where you saw it, or the specific details of this well known racism heaped on White NBA players.
Do you not understand that trash talk between PEERS on different teams WHILE PLAYING A GAME is different that an OWNER saying the same thing, and advocating discriminatory practices? Even beyond the fact that saying, “White boy” is pretty mild in terms of trash talk, the idea that the intent is racist is highly suspect.
I don’t think you understood Acsenray’s point at all. All racism * isn’t* equally unjust. Let’s take another look at what he posted and you claimed to understand:
So you understand all that completely, but you want us to act as if it’s not true? Institutional white racism against non-white people - especially from somebody as powerful as Donald Sterling - has a much greater capacity to hurt people and is a far greater injustice than whatever Jay-Z’s bling says about whitey. Pretending otherwise comes off as a futile attempt to defend the indefensible.
It’s one thing to say that all racism should be met with zero tolerance. It’s quite another to minimize white racism that is being dealt with publicly by saying “hey, there’s anti-white racism too!” You are clearly implying that something is wrong or out of proportion regarding the reaction to Donald Sterling. Anti-white racism is simply not a significant socio-cultural phenomenon. It’s a red herring. Sure, it’s unfortunate that it exists but it’s simply not that important given the history and current reality of racism in America. And When the real problem of racism is being dealt with, don’t be surprised if “but anti-white racism exists!” is met with irritation. At that point, you’re trifling with us.
So calling Sterling a racist in the same way you call the KKK racist is the same thing because they are both white yet if a black guy makes MINOR racist remarks it’s not a big deal?
I’m not flaming, and I’m certainly not tough. I didn’t keep badgering you when you backed off. But you picked right back up with trying to find equivalences to things that aren’t equivalent. The only possible effect that continuing to bring these things up can have is to drown out the actual problem in background noise. It’s very inconvenient for you if it isn’t your goal, but whether it’s your goal or not, the effect is that you’re mounting a defense for racism.
As of this moment, the KKK has little power in our society. It was disc retied long ago and no one takes them seriously. By contrast, it is racists like Donald Sterling—men with power and wealth and influence—the kind of racists who, unlike Sterling, are usually smart enough to keep their views to themselves—they are the ones who still run our society and they are the ones who need to be taken down.
I don’t agree that calling a guy “whiteboy” while trash talking during a basketball game is necessarily racist.
None of that has anything to do with Donald Sterling
I never compared Sterling to the KKK
Donald Sterling is clearly a racist, and just because that same term is used to describe other people doesn’t mean anything. To make a simple analogy you can understand. I think most would agree Michael Jordan is tall at 6’6". People would also agree that Dikembe Mutumbo is tall at 7’1". Calling both of them tall isn’t really an issue.
And lest you think Black people associated with the NBA are not criticized for saying bigoted things, just Google “Tim Hardaway fired”.
As far as I’m concerned, white players are under no obligation to say anything about Sterling. There’s nothing wrong with them speaking out, but I’m happy to assume they disagree with him absent other evidence. The stuff this guy said was vile and I wouldn’t assume anyone agreed with it- and unlike team owners, white basketball players are pretty much making a choice to associate with black people on a full time basis.
And this is really fascinating: all the teams are sharing this message.There are even reports the players were willing to boycott tonight’s games over this issue. There’s a widespread assumption that the NBA Players’ Union got crushed during the last lockout - not only did the owners get pretty much everything they wanted, but the players fired their union head over misconduct and nepotism accusations - but they really stood up for themselves here. The star players and commentators were also very outspoken. I assume Kevin Johnson (mayor of Sacramento/former player) deserves a lot of the credit for this stand. It might be an important moment in the labor/management relationship in the NBA.
And if you want to see how a person can handle being publicly and loudly wrong with class and a real desire to correct the situation, just Google “Tim Hardaway fired”.
Oh heck, I’ll save you the trouble and quote his wiki entry:
To add to your post, you’ll note that the bottom paragraph of the article has a five per center attacking him for wearing it because he’s not a member, doesn’t subscribe to their beliefs and is using the symbol as a fashion accessory.
Note I’m hardly a Jay Z fan but he strikes me as being more like one of those idiot white hipsters who wear CCCP or Che T-shirts than some believer in the evilness of white people.
I wasn’t talking about that. He’s banned for life from even attending a game. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with that decision. I don’t want to defend the slimeball, but we’re getting into Scarlet Letter territory here.
Really? Getting banned from watching live basketball seems pretty meh as punishments go. People get banned from bars and clubs for bad behavior all the time. Is there something fundamentally wrong with that as well?
Incidentally, ok Spike Lee’s statement is hypocritical considering how often he whined it was wrong for Jewish leaders to criticize Farrakhan when Farrakhan made anti-Semitic comments, but his recent comments were hardly outrageous much less comparable to Sterlings claims.
Fundamentally wrong? Nah, it’s small potatoes. There are plenty of people who will never be able to attend an NBA game in person. It won’t affect his quality of life in any meaningful way. But again the symbolism is very significant.
I think what John’s going for is the concept of the thought police. It’s not like Sterling is ever physically going to go to a game. He’s made himself so unpopular as to become a crowd control problem. He might as well change his name to “fuck you” because that’s how he’s going to greeted anywhere he goes.
But I find the ban to be conceptually large potatoes.