Clippers' Owner Don Stirling's Rant Wasn't Racist

Clippers' Owner Don Stirling's Rant Wasn't Racist

 

Within hours after TMZ  Sports published an audio tape last Friday apparently involving Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Tokowitz Sterling angrily making alleged racist remarks during a private, heated argument earlier this month with his then-girlfriend/mistress, V. Stiviano, the reactions on the Internet, from former and current NBA players, the league itself, civil rights leaders, black celebs, and, later, even from President Barack Hussein Obama, came fast and furiously. 

What incensed Sterling was Ms. Stiviano, a black-Mexican model denounced by Mrs. Rochelle Stein Stirling as a “golddigger,” posting a photo (since removed) on Instagram featuring her posing with NBA great Magic Johnson at a Clippers’ game. 

Shortly after the tape hit the fan, and without verification that the recorded voice on the tape was even Sterling’s, brickbats came flying in the owner’s direction:

–NBA spokesman Mike Bass weighed in by saying the comments were “disturbing and offensive;”

–Miami Heat star LeBron James called them “appalling,” said he wasn’t sure if he would play the rest of the NBA playoffs if he was a Clipper, and added, “There’s no room for Donald Sterling in the NBA;”

–L.A. Lakers’ MVP Kobe Bryant, who was accused in 2003 of raping a 19 year old in Colorado and paying her off, tweeted, “I couldn’t play for him;”

–Famed Philadelphia 76ers power forward, “Sir Charles” Barkley, declared, “You can’t have this guy making statements like that. He [NBA commissioner Adam Silver] has to suspend him and fine him immediately;”

–Magic Johnson, the man sort of at the center of the controversy, expressed outraged “disappointment” with Donald Sterling and contended it was time for Sterling to sell the Clippers;

–The always rabid Snoop Dogg got into the act, ripping the owner as a “racist piece of s**t” and the always race-baiting Al Sharpton threatened to take his troops into the steets in protest . . .

I guess Sterling is fortunate that no one, so far, has called for his lynching!

Though this will no doubt deeply annoy Sterling’s offended critics, based on the excerpts of the eighty year old  Sterling’s rant against the 20-something Stiviano as published on TMZ.com, there is little if anything that can reasonably be characterized as racist in what he said. 

If we agree with the generally accepted definition of racist as someone who . . .  (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=36879.)