If you’ve just emerged from a coma or were binge-watching Game of Thrones episodes, then you may
be unaware of the messy and disturbing media firestorm surrounding Donald
Sterling, wealthy owner of the Los Angeles Clippers pro basketball team. Allow
me to recap.
The controversy began when a tape surfaced of a conversation
between the 80-year-old Sterling and his half-black, half-Hispanic “girlfriend”
V. Stiviano, a half-century younger than the billionaire. Unaware that he was
being recorded, a distressed Sterling complained that she was embarrassing him
by publicly associating with black people – posting, for example, an Instagram
pic of herself with former NBA star Magic Johnson. The tabloid site TMZ got
hold of the conversation, and the rest is hysteria.
The internet and news media sizzled with outrage over
Sterling’s racist remarks. Everybody had to get into the act, to paraphrase
Jimmy Durante. Some argued that Sterling didn’t actually do anything racist, and that his free speech had been infringed
upon by the secret recording, while others rebutted that the NBA has every
right and obligation to punish him. Republicans and Democrats both tried to
link him to the other party – as if the racism of a single man somehow confirms
the racism of an entire party. Racial ambulance-chasers like Jesse Jackson and
Al Sharpton called for bans and vigils. Celebrities like Oprah weighed in, of
course; perhaps with a nod toward last year’s Oscar-winner 12 Years a Slave, director Spike Lee accused Sterling of having a
“slave master’s mentality.”
Now a lifetime ban from the NBA has been handed down to
Sterling, as well as a $2.5 million fine, the harshest the
NBA constitution allows. Sterling may also be forced to sell the Clippers,
in which case they may be picked up by – holy poetic justice! – Magic Johnson
and his partners (there is even speculation that Johnson himself somehow
engineered this whole scenario, which would certainly thicken the plot).
But former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a blistering
opinion piece rightly excoriating all those participating in the “Olympic
tryouts for Morally Superior Head Shaking.” He reserved particular venom for
the manipulative “girlfriend” Stiviano and wondered why it took her tape to
spark everyone’s outrage about Sterling.
What he was referring to is the billionaire’s
less-than-sterling reputation as one of the largest property owners and
landlords in the L.A. area. Back in 2008 the LA Weekly posted a stunning summary of his violations of civil rights and tenants’
rights, in addition to, as Talking
Points Memo (TPM) puts it, his “shameful reputation as a man who abuses his
employees, acknowledges paying for sex with prostitutes, and has had a string
of girlfriends who live in expensive homes and drive luxury cars” that Sterling
has paid for.
And yet, with spectacularly awkward timing, the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People had been set to give Sterling
a Lifetime Achievement Award next month, an honor they are now rescinding, of
course, while neglecting to mention that Sterling already has a 2009 NAACP
Lifetime Achievement Award as well as a 2008 NAACP President’s Award.
Why is, or was, Sterling such an unlikely favorite of the
NAACP? The answer is not black or white but green: he has been a significant
donor to the organization – perhaps to whitewash his reputation – and the NAACP
was happy to oblige despite his record of discrimination. TPM described the organization
as “simply another cog in the Sterling PR machine.”
As for Stiviano, she was sued
just last month by Sterling’s wife
Rochelle for the return of the $1.8-million L.A. duplex, a Ferrari, two
Bentleys and a Range Rover that her husband bought for Stiviano last year (Rochelle
was apparently upset that her name wasn’t on the deed too).
In fact, as easy as it is to dogpile on Donald Sterling, the real story seems as much about money as racism: for money, the NAACP turned a blind eye to Sterling’s sins; for money, his wife turned a blind eye to his “girlfriends”; for money, the “girlfriends” turned a blind eye to their own prostitution – until the glaring light of public scrutiny forced everyone to distance themselves from the radioactive Sterling.
In fact, as easy as it is to dogpile on Donald Sterling, the real story seems as much about money as racism: for money, the NAACP turned a blind eye to Sterling’s sins; for money, his wife turned a blind eye to his “girlfriends”; for money, the “girlfriends” turned a blind eye to their own prostitution – until the glaring light of public scrutiny forced everyone to distance themselves from the radioactive Sterling.
Rochelle, for example, originally defended
her husband against the charge of racism, saying “it’s not true”; but when it
became impossible to deny, she threw him under the bus for his “despicable
views or prejudices” and “small-mindedness.” The NAACP released a statement
about standing up and confronting racism blah blah blah. Stiviano is currently hiding
under a giant visor.
Abdul-Jabbar firmly believes that people like Sterling
should be paraded in humiliation across “the modern town square of the television
screen.” I couldn’t agree more that racists (of all races) should be exposed, but
allowing the media and internet mobs to serve as judge, jury and executioner is
a dangerous game. Donald Sterling may have made his bed and now must lie in it,
but less culpable lives are easily destroyed by the media rush to judgment.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 4/30/14)
