...that I expect will be all for the day.
We have reached a stage of social degeneration in which half of us have designated themselves Inquisitors, and the other half must cower in fear of them.
Yes, Donald Sterling is a racist. So what? So am I. There are objective statistical disparities among the races. One can refuse to believe them, or attempt to shout down those who speak openly of them and demand that the Inquisitors punish them; that is all.
Sterling's opinions about race relations, implied by an intended-to-be-private admonition to his kinda-sorta girlfriend (who had every right to ignore it and him), have been used to dispossess him of $2.5 million and the control of the NBA franchise that's his rightful property.
This is theft and oppression flying a flag of righteousness. And everyone, Left, Right, or Other, who has spoken in approval of this atrocity will someday pay a heavier price than any of them can imagine.
Please excuse me. I'm going to lie down in a nice dark room with a cool cloth on my forehead until the steam has ceased to pour from my ears.
4 comments:
We are on our way to the two minutes of hate for thought crimes. Sterling is a jerk. So what? He's now a pariah for an illegally recorded conversation by his sometime girlfriend who coincidentally is being investigated for embezzling over one million dollars from him. All that has been lost in the media created firestorm of hate and ostrization. Who's next?
I'm going to disagree with you on this point: Sterling is one of a handful of owners in a league featuring a vast majority of black players. The release of the tape, while clearly illegal, has put the NBA (which I don't follow or care for) in an corner.
The league has, as part of it's rules of ownership, the right to protect it's brand just as any corporation. Ridding itself of Sterling is part of that protection.
I'm saddened that the context has been lost - he was telling his escort that she can sleep with whomever she wants, just stop making him look bad by publishing pictures of herself with other men - and the focus on the racial comments is the only part receiving attention.
He wasn't saying anything about statistics or achievement gaps or affirmative action. He was stating the he doesn't want his arm candy to be seen with black men because it makes a joke of his fake relationship with his escort.
The man deserves legal protection, but no sympathy, and the NBA was right to protect itself as an entertainment platform.
Dan, I might have agreed with your assertion of the NBA's self-protection privilege except for two things:
1) They robbed Sterling of $2.5 million;
2) They did so on the basis of a statement he made in private, with an unambiguous expectation of privacy.
Add to that the NAACP having mulcted Sterling twice, and having given him an award, and the sorry business sinks to the lowest depths of cowardice and hypocrisy.
I agree with you on the fine, and that's where the legal protections come in.
I would be amazed if he didn't challenge the fine in court, and if the court upholds the penalty you are exactly right - that would signal that we have no protection from tyranny, even when we are ourselves the victims of fraud.
Until then, I'm going to withhold my final judgement on the state of the union, while marvelling at the fact that like the Bundy situation, the Becks, Hannitys, etc. are so cowed by the spectre of racism that not one of them has pointed out the injustice that Sterling - as big a POS as he is - has been a victim of.
Final thought: if it had been a Dem politician of colour making those remarks, do you think the fact that the recording was made illegally would be part of the discussion?
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