Quote: (04-29-2014 04:20 PM)speakeasy Wrote:
Quote: (04-29-2014 02:44 PM)DetlefMourning Wrote:
Kareem nailed it. Sterling's a racist idiot, but I don't like Gotcha Culture. It pisses me off to see mainstream commentators white knight for this whore. She committed a crime by illegally recording their conversation. I'm not a racist, but I'm guilty of joking around in a raunchy, anything goes, nothing sacred manner with my friends over text. We've said much worse shit than that than Sterling. I wouldn't want some of my text messages seeing the light of day because "We were just joking around" is no match for liberal grievance culture.
I think there's a difference between telling a politically incorrect joke in private between friends and forbidding your girlfriend from taking a photo with Magic Johnson because he's black. Especially when Magic is a class act and one of the most respected athletes of all time, both on and off the court. It might not even be nearly as big a deal if his business was something outside the NBA. Now if this guy instead owned a soccer team in Russia then maybe his comments wouldn't raise an eyebrow, but the NBA isn't the place for it. I can only imagine how this effects the morale of the mostly black team in the playoffs.
It shouldn't affect them a jot. If they can allow racist remarks that weren't addressed to them to trivialize the 15-20 years of work and dedication they've all put in to get to this point, the opportunity to immortalize themselves as NBA champions, then I'd seriously question their mental fortitude and character even.
Even if Sterling is a racist, that didn't prevent him from hiring black players, not to mention installing a black man in a position of leadership and paying them millions to bring a title contender to the floor. In other words his racism didn't outweigh his desire to make money, which means that what we're essentially saying in a general sense is that you have to love every single thing about anyone you work for or with or work for you. It's a ridiculous assertion and it's going to boil down to 'if you have an opinion we don't like, you aren't 'fit' to provide value, even if your opinions do not affect your ability to provide value in an economic sense.'
If we're going to be consistent about this, we've got to first establish what opinions are ok to have, and what are not, then we must go through every mode of recordable communication of every working person and check against the list of bad opinions. Then whoever comes up with a match must face sanctions including fines, loss of employment, expulsion from school, etc.
That's the big picture reality. Having reprehensible views from an employment standpoint is inherently damaging, because it potentially prevents you from associating yourself with the best people possible. From what I've seen Sterling didn't let his racism do that necessarily. Who cares if he doesn't like black people, if he is giving them a fair shake for the simple reason that he wants to make money? The only reason Sterling deserved sanctions was because the NBA is a private organization which can do business how it wants. If Sterling has broken some sort of morality clauses then it's fair game. Similarly, sponsors and the like are dropping association with the team, which is also fair game. He's getting punished by the market, as it should be. However it's being made a big deal as a public issue, with the freaking President commenting only because the media has found its Racist of the Week and the mob has essentially forced the NBA to go nuclear on Sterling. That's not a good thing going forward, and it will be interesting to see how consistent people are going to be with this.
