Good.
just look at this smug bastard
This morning, while I was driving to campus, I was listening to NPR and found out that the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, is hoping to have Sterling (why are all these men named after metals) sell off his team in order to further alienate him from the league. It requires 3/4 of the votes from the 29 team owners, and he's confident he has those votes in order to oust Silver.
Even better.
And then I heard what this contributor on NPR had to say and I was actually screaming, in my car, by myself, for the last five minutes of my commute. To be fair, the man is a regular writer for Slate so I probably should have known better, but I digress. This man was defending Sterling's rights to his property (and I'd just like to raise the point of how problematic that language is-- we're talking about a sports team. I realize it's a franchise with merchandising rights etc. etc. etc. BUT. At its core, it is a team. A team of people. I am pretty damn sure people are not property. So gross. anyway) and that it was questionable for the league to make this decision because the tape was "recorded illegally." He went on to say that Sterling is gross, everything he said is gross, but this is "taking it too far."
Um.
No.
apparently the woman on his right is his girlfriend...?
Now, I do not want to speak on the behalf of any POC, however, as someone who is constantly unpacking my own privilege in order to better work in solidarity with my peers, I think this is a huge, necessary step for the NBA. I think what a lot of people are failing to understand in this situation is that racism is not just bigoted, fat-faced blubber-lipped old white men spouting off racial epitaphs. So many people fail to recognize racism because they're not seeing violent hate crimes, they're not seeing segregation-- on the surface, everything points to living in what some are referring to as a "post-racist" society. But it's just not true.
Racism is an institution. It has been built on for hundreds of years using junk science and legal discrimination and miseducation to create a systemic disadvantage for people who are not white or white-passing. With this so-called "overreaction" from the NBA, the league is setting a precedent. A precedent that they will not stand for racism and microaggressions, that it does not matter how much money you can throw at a problem or how much influence you have within a system, your bigotry will not be tolerated. And that is vastly important. I can only hope that, in the future, other professional sports organizations will follow their example when dealing with this kind of idiocy. So many young people look up to these professional athletes and these organizations, and the NBA setting this kind of example is vital in helping to show young kids what's right and what's not.
So excuse me if I'm not moved by Don Sterling's traumatic plight.
(also he will be making an incredible amount of money off of selling the team so I really feel like it should just be nationalized and owned by the people but I'll leave my Marxist rantings for another time)
