# WTF is Donald Sterling's deal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221 "2014-04-28T22:52:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/41 "2014-05-01T17:35:14Z")
No, it’s not "just another@ dick story. It’s much deeper than that. It’s about wealth and power and the privilege of bring white in this society. > **[» The Owner and the Owned: A Discussion About Donald Sterling](https://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-owner-and-the-owned-a-discussion-about-donald-sterling/)** > [@](#): > > … this could be a plantation master talking to his mistress about keeping the slaves in the field and out of his house. Actually, this more or less is a plantation master talking to his mistress, who has identified as Mexican and black and has the sort of cheekbones, eyes, and jawline you get when you live in Beverly Hills. It’s striking and heartbreaking how fed up with his hypocrisy she sounds … It’s just as perversely moving to hear Sterling insist that he has no power to change the culture. As the owner of a team staffed with black men, who have black and interracial families, he doesn’t feel an obligation to fight racism. He feels a moral duty to accept his lot in life as a rich white person of power and keep the help away from him. And his mistress ought to know better. > > In Sterling’s thinking on the recording, Stiviano being the sort of person with whom he doesn’t want her to publicly fraternize is secondary to her status as an erotic exception. Classification as one type of property trumps classification as another. Her being near Magic Johnson and Matt Kemp defies the terms he’s set for their relationship. She has defied being property, and it upsets him. **This is one of the most complexly true conversations I’ve ever heard about race. It’s a white man grappling with his privilege while doing nothing to jeopardize it. It’s a black woman brought to question the disgusting nature of her having been privileged in the first place. He thrives in his hypocrisy. She appears to resent hers.** Whether Stiviano was compensated to record this evening and submit it to the media, her having so done constitutes even a tiny escape from self-loathing. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/42 "2014-05-01T21:50:27Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Looks like he thought he owed her ass, and he could be an jerk to her. Turns out he was wrong. I thought she owed him ass? Now I’m confused. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/43 "2014-05-02T21:05:20Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/44 "2014-06-13T08:23:21Z")
[Donald Sterling aims to ‘dig up’ dirt.](http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/11075968/donald-sterling-hires-4-private-investigation-firms-dig-nba) ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/45 "2014-06-13T14:01:13Z")
I don’t think Sterling intends to be racist. He does however, intend to elevate himself over the common drabble, as the rich usually do. He considers whoever he has working for him to be property, whether they be VPs, players, or whores, no matter their race. His objections to his mistress being seen in the company of blacks is the same to him as having a visible loose thread on his jacket. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/46 "2014-06-17T05:17:53Z")
> [@delsina363](#): > > Is he racist, I believe so. There has to be more that meets the story, given the obvious, he is dating out of his race. > > 😕 I know of a guy who was dating a woman of another race and they were long term and live in before breaking up, but he said he was sure to always wear a condom because he didn’t want his seed polluted with her inferior genes. (black dude, east indian girl if anyone was curious) ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/47 "2014-06-17T05:21:56Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > [Donald Sterling aims to ‘dig up’ dirt.](http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/11075968/donald-sterling-hires-4-private-investigation-firms-dig-nba) I am starting to like this guy. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221/48 "2014-06-17T06:56:59Z")
I wouldn’t go that far, but I do find that notion entertaining. Would make a good TV show or movie–I’m picturing the law firm as being like a right wing version of the one on _The Good Wife._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-donald-sterlings-deal/687221.md?page=2)