Over the past several weeks the media, television and radio
as well as the social network have been flooded with comments and criticism of
Donald Sterling over comments he admittedly made which were regarded as racially
sensitive by some, and downright offensive by others.
From the start based on what I heard of the
incident, and even before hearing from Sterling
himself, I characterized the whole thing as being much ado about nothing, and
wrote as much in a blog on my twitter.
Now having heard a little more
including from the old man himself, I am even more convinced even though I have
not spoken to a single person of color who agrees with me; but be that as it
may I do believe my point of view is correct.
From a legal point of view, and
notwithstanding any agreement Sterling had made to the contrary, I think there
is no doubt that to force him to sell his property based on something he said
in private is dead wrong. A man just
cannot be deprived of his property based on something he might have said, or
opinions he holds, libel and slander aside.
There was an old man 80 years of
age; he is apparently having a liaison with a younger woman, who in any event
seems to be non-white. He gets insanely jealous over the fact she is seen out
in public with a younger man or men, and he rants to her about it. She unknown to him records the rant and made
it public.
So okay, the thing gets out, and
black players, members of the public including sponsors take it up and offence is
taken, lots of it.
In steps the NBA Commissioner, whose
name incidentally is Silver, so we have a rare concoction of Sterling/Silver,
not a tea pot or cutlery, and Mr. Silver uses his assumed authority and fines
Mr. Sterling 2.5 million dollars, tries to force him to sell his franchise, and
bans him for life from membership of the NBA.
Quite rightly Sterling threatened to sue; but in the
meantime, his wife Mrs. Sterling finds a buyer for the team for 2 billion
dollars. Mr. Sterling’s reaction was at
first, “No, I am not agreeing to a sale;” but he is an old man. Dragging the matter through the court could
take more than his life time; so after taking time to consider he says, “alright,
I will sell; but let me have a little of my dignity back. Sell the team; but
lift the ban”
Here again in my judgment, a wise
Silver would have said, “Yes you will have to sell the team; but your life
membership ban is lifted.”
Was that too much to give an old
man? I say no.
And in saying no, I
ask this question. Which one of us
living today, who has never in private made remarks stigmatizing in some form
or another some other race, be it black or white or otherwise? I am confident that if the truth be known all
of us have. I have, you have and the
rest of the world has.
American Black men in fact use the
“n” word five hundred times more often than all the rest of the world put
together; they use it in anger, they use it in jest, they use it in their
ordinary daily communication, as some
would say colloquially for tea, breakfast and dinner.
So Magic Johnson and the rest of the
black men who got all hot and bothered under the collar over Donald Sterling’s
remarks should stop and examine their own loose vocabulary before jumping on a
poor old jealous, ranting individual and stomping all over him.
I do hope Donald Sterling sues the NBA;
and I hope he and I live to hear the Supreme Court pronounce on his legal
rights. Needless to say, I do absolutely empathize with Donald Sterling. Not
only do I empathize, but if I were to preside over a matter such as this, I would definitely rule in favor of the
owner.
Rev Dr John S Weekes
www.chaberbooks.com
