I almost feel sorry for Donald Sterling. I said almost.
He's an old man. Eighty years old. He's most likely been a racist dickhead for most of those eighty years so, this is not a new development. It's not dementia or Alzheimer's. Life has caught him in racist acts before. He's paid fines in the past for refusing to rent to Blacks and Hispanics. He's also paid X-number of dollars to the NAACP to purchase "Lifetime Achievement" awards to mask his racist views. It's like the GOP with Herman Cain. You wanna call them racist? They can trot out Cain, Alan West and a third guy that I can't think of at the moment. Can you?
Anyway, the old man has always been this way. I've know old guys like this most of my life and you probably have as well. There isn't really a whole lot of irony in his owning a mostly Black team in a mostly Black league. Hell- he's not talking about killing Black people! He just doesn't believe he should have to rent homes to them. There might be some irony in him telling all this to his Black and Hispanic girlfriend though. Evidently he saw nothing wrong with himself sleeping with her and he was open-minded enough (in a sublime...sort of way) that he didn't mind her sleeping with her own kind. He just didn't want her bringing her Black friends to his LA Clipper games, or posing with them on Instagram.
There's no fool like an old fool. I guess the genesis of the tape was a shakedown by the girlfriend. Sterling has been married to the same woman for 57 years and I imagine she knows as much as she wants to know about his dalliances, and doesn't care. I don't think she's crying.
I don't know if you know this but, there are a lot of jerks with money! This country is lousy with them. In fact, I think life advertises for them as: "JERKS PAID EXTRA!!!" I would venture that the Koch brothers, Randolph and Mortimer, hate Black people and actually have a bet as to whether Barack Obama can operate the country. How much money? The usual...
So, no surprise that a rich old white guy is a racist. No real surprise that he owns an NBA franchise. No real surprise that he had a Black lover.
He's been fined and banned for life...from attending the games of the team he owns. There's talk that the league may force him to sell. I think they can do that. A thorough check of the US Constitution by yours truly showed that the Second Amendment does NOT cover this so, no militia patriot actions are necessary. Besides, the guy's a Jew.
6 comments:
My understanding is that the girlfriend is being sued by the wife. Having said that, it appears that you can be tried by the court of public opinion on information that was obtained unlawfully and then with said information, face consequences as if the facts were allowable to begin with.
A fine quagmire indeed! A bit like finding out that the genteel author, Margaret Mitchell, whose work of fiction is smeared in racial stereotypes, is responsible for endowing Howard University and Medical college. Sort of - except she's not a jew, she liked black people, was faithful to her husband and didn't engage with swingers she met through Craigs List.
Sublimy!!!
Anyhow, the wife seems to be standing by her racist husband...
I thought that black universities were already well-endowed? Well, that's what I've heard...
I can't see the wife suing the mistress. I know a wife used to be able to sue for "lack of consortium" but, in this case after 57 years of marriage, shouldn't the wife be paying the mistress FOR consortying with her old man so she doesn't have to???? That seems rather black and white to me.
byline: Deer Whisperer/Luke
Caveat -- only read one on-line article about this, and can't remember at what point. Beyond that, what I've mentally absorbed comes from TV news in different treatments; Inside Edition, CBS News, and PBS News Hour. With heavier, more significant news in the mix, I acknowledge the likelihood of confusion.
An early news report mentioned that this ex-girlfriend was being sued by Mrs. Sterling. In later ones I don't remember it being mentioned. One of the latest I've seen included that Mrs. Sterling sued a prior girlfriend for retrieval of property (maybe other gifts) given by Mr. Sterling. I infer a pattern.
I also infer that the happy couple of 50+ years of blissful matrimony are at least on the same page of having separate lives within the marriage; and being on the same page about "being choosey" about who they rent to.
There is video of Mrs. Sterling posing as a health inspector regarding their rental properties. This video I understand to be contemporaneous with the incidents of racial discrimination allegations that cost them to settle.
It seems that both are at least on the same chapter of the book they live by.
Re: book -- yep, it's my understanding that Mrs. Mitchell endowed the medical college by covert courier. At minimum, she understood that more black doctors were needed.
Given Jim Crow and bitter and violent reactionary consequences I can't fault her in her secrecy. Moreover, she was a private person. She declined being in the limelight for the world premiere of the movie in Atlanta.
And ... Mrs. Mitchell was no 'cookie-cutter' southern lady.
Sounds like restitution in both cases to me- a bit of guilt easing. Sterling acted as if he personally gave the Clipper players their wealthy lifestyles when in reality, he just signed the checks. If he didn't employ them as ballers, somebody else would.
IDK much about Margaret Mitchell and I only know the film rather than the book but, I think you're right about her desire for secrecy, given the times. Her characters seemed pretty broad to me. There's a certain woman who admires Scarlett and there are those that see her as the frivolous waste of space she was. Same with "The Lost Cause Of The Confederacy". Some still see the Civil war as a paradise lost because of the elegance of the 1% of their time translated so well to film. Not everybody 'gets it' in life.
byline: Deer Whisperer/Luke
Friday's ABC 20/20: Barbara Walters "get" was the Visor Girl. Sterling himself was a separate possible, but he eventually declined.
Topixwikileaks is right. The program hosts introduced the interview with the bit about Mrs. Sterling suing Visor Girl in March regarding a $1 million abode, 2 Bentley autos, and a Ferrari sports car, if not more.
The interview was pretty much 'meh' to me. I didn't expect otherwise. 20/20 also had the story about the real estate agents using a client property for trysts and getting caught on video; horn-honking turmoil in a small Ohio town; and, contractors disappearing with money and unfinished projects.
What I know about Margaret Mitchell comes from a fine American Masters episode on PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/margaret-mitchell-american-rebel/watch-the-full-documentary/2047/
I don't know if she endowed more colleges. The Atlanta one for blacks was Morehouse College. The above documentary portrays her covert donations directly to Dr. Mays, then college president, via courier. By the by, According to Wikipedia, the present location of Morehouse is on land donated by John D. Rockefeller.
I may have jumbled some facts about what Mrs. Mitchell did and didn't attend; GWTW premiere, the post-viewing party, and the later Oscar ceremony. The documentary claimed she sent a personal letter to African-American Hattie McDonald, Oscar winner for supporting role, because of segregated treatment at one or more of these related events.
Wikipedia bio about Mrs. Mitchell correlates with the documentary well for early life through her GWTW period. Mitchell, born in 1900, scandalized Atlanta society by doing an "energetic" tango at a debutant ball. She was a vibrant young, "active flapper".
What is not mentioned in Wiki is this endowment. It's not mentioned in Morehouse College wiki article either.
And this wasn't really mentioned in the TV documentary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mitchell#Interest_in_erotica
but then again, details of Jimi Hendrix's death were omitted from his American Masters piece.
I saw something about visor girl and her having taken to wearing a visor. Clearly, this is her 15 minutes. Porn to follow. That's show biz!
I also saw a clip where Bill Maher had Kareem Jabbar on and discussing this from the perspective of a very tall, very thoughtful NBA veteran. He pointed out that Sterlings age is no excuse, that "he's of that generation..." is bullshit. Kareem pointed out he's of the generation that witnessed Jessee Owens at the Berlin Olympics, Jackie Robinson in baseball, the Civil Rights movement. His generation saw it all. This didn't just happen.
So, I stand corrected- sorta. He's had decades to see the light but he's cursed the darkness instead.
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