It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

So you think its good common sense for Reinsdorf to "broker this resolution" and get himself involved with this mess even if would likely hurt his other interests? You don't think TMZ or a site like it wouldn't print a story that would end up with a headline something like "White Sox Owner Supports Sterling"? You've said yourself many times that he is a great business man. How would him brokering this resolution be a good business move?

Since you're so smart and all, let's hear it.

In our zeal to appear righteous or courageous or free of bigotry, a ratings-pleasing mob hell-bent on revenge turned Donald T. Sterling -- a victim of privacy invasion and white supremacy -- from villain to martyr.

In a society filled with impurities, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers committed the crime of speaking impure thoughts in the privacy of a duplex he apparently provided for his mistress. And now an angry, agenda-fueled mob provoked NBA commissioner Adam Silver into handing Sterling a basketball death sentence.

When private conversations become public, it's important to react with logic and not emotion.
On Tuesday, just 72 hours after the release of Sterling's Pillow Talk Tapes by TMZ, a rookie commissioner imposed a lifetime ban on a flawed man whose rights were violated.

Mob rule is dangerous. Well-intentioned, TV-baited mobs are the most dangerous. They do not consider the consequences of their actions, and they're prone to take a simple-minded, instant-gratification approach to justice rather than a strategic one.

Removing Donald Sterling from the NBA solves nothing. It sets a precedent that will likely boomerang and harm the black players and coaches who are shocked and outraged that an 80-year-old man with a documented history of bigoted actions also has bigoted private thoughts.

Let's be careful here. From the owner's box to the locker room, professional sports are overrun with wealthy men in complicated, volatile sexual relationships. If TMZ plans to make "pillow talk" public and the standard is set that "pillow talk" is actionable, it won't be long before a parade of athletes joins Sterling on Ignorance Island.

A right to privacy is at the very foundation of American freedoms. It's a core value. It's a mistake to undermine a core value because we don't like the way a billionaire exercises it. What happens when a disgruntled lover gives TMZ a tape of a millionaire athlete expressing a homophobic or anti-Semitic or anti-white perspective?

Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who called for Clippers fans to boycott Game 5, seems quite vulnerable to mob rule. Jackson is super-religious. He's previously been extorted by a stripper he kept as a mistress. And some of the LGBT community views Jackson as homophobic.

The conversation revolving around Donald Sterling is unsophisticated, and so was the heavy-handed punishment. They're driven by emotion rather than logic. It does not serve the greater good of the offended black community. Sterling is a scapegoat. He is an easy target, a decoy so that we do not address the elephant he walked into his mistress' bedroom.

"We don't evaluate what's right and wrong," Sterling is heard telling his black-and-Latina mistress when she asked if it was right to treat black as less than white. "We live in a society. We live in a culture. We have to live within that culture."

Sterling adheres to a pervasive culture, the hierarchy established by global white supremacy.

"I don't want to change the culture because I can't," Sterling says. "It's too big."

This was Sterling's one moment of clarity. The culture of white supremacy created Donald Sterling. He did not create the culture.

Donald Sterling is only a symptom of a larger problem that needs to be addressed.
Much of what Sterling said on the tape is a rambling mess that can be interpreted many ways by sophisticated, mature and objective ears. To my ears, he doesn't care that his mistress has black friends. He doesn't care if she has sexual relationships with black men. He's married. They're not in a monogamous relationship. He simply does not want her extracurricular activities, particularly when they might involve black men, flaunted at his basketball games or all over Instagram.

This conversation, while grotesque and abhorrent, is not remotely unique or limited to old white men. My father was hood-rich, good looking and a playa who enjoyed the company of a younger, kept woman. Many of his friends had similar tastes. Their private conversations about dating could sound every bit as abhorrent and grotesque as Sterling's. I've heard young black men and women engage in equally grotesque and abhorrent private conversations, particularly when their feelings are hurt or they feel betrayed.

No. The substantive meat of Sterling's Sex, Lies and Audiotape is his point about the culture that created his worldview. He is adhering to the standards of his peer group. He is adhering to the standards of the world he lives in. It's a world inhabited by all of us. It's a culture that shapes everyone's worldview on some level. It fuels the black self-hatred at the core of commercialized hip-hop culture, and is at the root of the NAACP's initial plan to twice honor an unrepentant bigot with a lifetime achievement award.

White-supremacy culture is created, maintained and run by rich white men, Sterling's peers. He is the longest-tenured owner in the NBA. Former commissioner David Stern had multiple opportunities to run Sterling out of the league for his bigoted actions. Sterling's peers have always protected him ... until he had the audacity and stupidity to be caught on tape explaining the culture they maintain.

It's comical to watch the well-intentioned mob circle around Sterling as if his unintended transparency says nothing about his peer group. It's equally comical seeing this issue framed as a "black issue," with black people running to suggest ways to clean up Sterling's mess.

White people should be wearing black socks, turning their T-shirts inside out, protesting outside the Staples Center. This is their culture, their Frankenstein. Or maybe they agree with Donald T. Sterling.

"I don't want to change the culture because I can't. It's too big."

It's also too beneficial. It's too comfortable.

Well-intentioned white people should be holding nationally televised panel discussions focusing on ways to lessen the damaging impact of white-supremacy culture. Well-intentioned white people who work within or support the NBA should be demanding that the NBA power structure cede some of its governing power to men and women who look like the overwhelming majority of the league's players.

Instead, the mainstream fanned the flames, enraging the angry black mob looking for a quick solution, a sacrificial lamb -- and now, by the end of the week, we'll be back to business as usual, pretending the stoning of Sterling harmed the culture that created him.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

So you think its good common sense for Reinsdorf to "broker this resolution" and get himself involved with this mess even if would likely hurt his other interests? You don't think TMZ or a site like it wouldn't print a story that would end up with a headline something like "White Sox Owner Supports Sterling"? You've said yourself many times that he is a great business man. How would him brokering this resolution be a good business move?

Since you're so smart and all, let's hear it.

Mmhmmm

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

private comments recorded illegally.

The old conspiracy theory: Recordings...Magic....uproar.....Magic buys Clippers .....makes you go mmmmmmmm Plus lets retest this Fatass Black (Black is replacing the N word) for HIV

Walt, are you OK?

You seem a little off the last couple days

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

Why do people keep repeating this? What makes anyone think it was recorded illegally?

Definitely could have been...but I'm not sure how people are stating it as fact.

Because they have a clear understanding of the law. In California, it is illegal to record a conversation unless the other person knows that the conversation is going to be recorded and is okay with it.

Except, HE KNEW HE WAS BEING RECORDED!

Gotta figure Walt's a Hegewisch guy, no?

Walt, are you OK?

You seem a little off the last couple days

Except, HE KNEW HE WAS BEING RECORDED!

Because they have a clear understanding of the law. In California, it is illegal to record a conversation unless the other person knows that the conversation is going to be recorded and is okay with it.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

Except, HE KNEW HE WAS BEING RECORDED!

isnt that according to the mistress skank only? I doubt sterling authorized those recordings.... she is trash for setting him up and recording all of these conversations.... but what sterling said is how he views the world... the legality of the recordings doesnt matter here

The NBA is not the justice system, occifer. He's not going to jail. He's being punished by the NBA which has every right to do exactly what they did yesterday.

That's all true. My comment was only in response to immessedup's question about why people opined that the recording was illegal. Yes, the NBA can vote (if they get a 75% owner vote) to force Sterling to sell. That seems likely to happen. However, the whole thing is a ridiculous response by the NBA to a private conversation. Sterling didn't suggest anyone go burn a cross on anyone's lawn or go lynch anyone. He just questioned why his former girlfriend wanted to post photos of herself on social media sites with black people and asked that she not do that. Is that offensive to many people...yes.

As far as whether or not he knew he was being recorded and GAVE HIS CONSENT to the conversation being recorded...we'll see. I suspect this will go to court and like in the Trayvon Martin case, people making statements here now, will be proven ignorant of the facts later. The conversation must have been made with his knowledge and CONSENT.

would would anyone, anytime EVER consent to being recorded ??

I understand not taking her at her word, but it sounds like he knew. Guy had an archivist and tried to get her to sing a confidentiality agreement about the tape



[i]Donald Sterling was AWARE he was being taped during the conversation that was posted on TMZ
Sports, in which the L.A. Clippers owner went on a racial rant ... so claims the woman who taped him.

And because you would like this to be true so that it supports the idea that Sterling was not taped illegally, you are willing to jump to the conclusion it is true. Forget that the gold digging tramp might be saying this to try to avoid prosecution.

He told her not to bring black people to Clippers games. That's the issue.



The tapes were his idea and he frequently asked them to be played back

Another swing and a miss. Maybe you should read a news article or consult with a more informed person like Frank Costanza before posting.

The one thing that really makes no sense to me about all this, is why was he ever with a woman who was black and Hispanic, when he clearly found blacks and Hispanics unacceptable? That's the one thing that is most puzzling.

He hired her as his archivist. Look up what archive means.

And I dont care if it was illegal. It doesnt matter. The NBA is not a court of law. And the woman is no hero. If she goes to jail, that's fine with me.


You just keep coming off more and more ignorant to the facts.