Issue of Race

Today, 2014…society approaches the issue of race over that Donald Sterling phone

conversation with Ms. V aka “Silly Rabbit”.


Let us look at the fullness of this without emotionally falling out of perspective.

Donald Sterling no doubt has made a racially insensitive statement, but the reality

of this matter is that…”society has everyday with or without intent made racially,

politically, economically, and gender biased insensitive statements. The only

difference here is that everyone isn’t being recorded when they’ve said these kind of

things, so of course it’s not under public scrutiny”. We’ve come a long distance since

Dr. Martin Luther King, but the truth is that everyone doesn’t believe in his dream

and never will. However, we continue to build on the world around us who does

believe in that dream.


This issue is so very fragile. People are giving support when they really don’t feel

it in their hearts, because they’d just rather not be on the side judged as being

associated with Mr. Sterling and they speak out against him to save face. Society can

be so hypocritical that way…this is all truth!


I’ve seen documentaries of men and women who’ve stood in the face of human

injustices at the hands of real racists!!! Surely none of you have forgotten the

degradations and physical force that many were subjected to during those times?!

Men and women who were willing to sacrifice their very lives for their belief toward

a better world, and unfortunately few of them did. Yet, here society is making

claims upon a man who it feels is racist to only a point of removing him from team

ownership of the clippers. Are you serious???


If Mr. Sterling is such the racist that everyone is suggesting that he is…why will his

wife who is co-owner be allowed to retain the team, when it has also been suggested

that she shares the same opinion of racist thinking according to video footage? That

family will still continue to make money off the fans, the workers, and the players.

That my friends is called support, yet everyone is saying they don’t support Mr.

Sterling…sorry to be the one to say that you are in fact supporting him like it or not,

it’s true!!!


This is no attack against the fans who lover their team, but if you were really for

the mind state of strongly disagreeing with what Mr. Sterling said, why continue

spending your money with his family? Is a championship opportunity really that

important?? You wouldn’t continue to shop at ta store that gives you horrible

customer service. You would take your business elsewhere that’s more appreciated

as a customer, right???


To the players…I know you have families to feed, but so did the people who make

the sacrifices with their lives for you to have the opportunities you have today. How

do you really feel? You fill Mr. Sterling’s seats, you fly on his jet, you work for him,

and you cash his checks…which are only a financial percentage of what you made

in his bank account. At the end of the day… what sacrifices are you making against

these feelings of racism you have? No disrespect, but obviously you don’t believe

that he’s a racist. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be playing. There’s no amount of money

that makes a person support any act of injustice or racism they don’t believe in. Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and many more lost their lives trying to bring this world out

of racism. Now just imagine if they had taken the money instead…where would his

dream be now? Would there be a Mr. Obama as president right now? Probably not!!!

To the other owners who clearly made the decision to vote Mr. Sterling out, I’m sure

that many of you if not all didn’t want to do that, but it’s not good for business if you

hadn’t. You really don’t believe that he’s a racist either, because if you did you’d not

only remove all clipper games from your schedules and prevent Mr. Sterling from

having access to the NBA, you’d prevent his family from having any financial stakes

within the NBA as well, because if his wife takes over the team it’s still money in his

pocket, right? With this not happening it indicates that you feel it’s not a big deal

that the media is trying to display it as your hands were just tied to protect your

own business investments.


Well, my personal opinion as a black man is that although Mr. Sterling made a

racially insensitive statement…he’s not a racist. A racist by any means doesn’t sell,

trade, associate with, or embrace anyone who associates with anyone outside of

their race. And if these kind of people who are out there could help it they’d try to no

breathe the same air of anyone outside of their race. This clearly is not Mr. Sterling!!!

It’s unfortunate that we do live in a world that is still so full of insensitive subjects

on various levels, that of course the media is so greedy to portray on a grand scale.

There are far more serious issues that can be reported around the world as well

as in the many, many impoverished communities around the United States of

America that they so often run away from. Serious issues that need those good 15

minutes of coverage as opposed to the lousy 15 seconds they give!!! The people

fuel these stereotypes with so many of their own vanities without even realizing it.

However, over the course of time in this multicultural society the stereotypes that

we have about so many things are created not for the sake of it, but because people

are out there actualizing them into reality.


When we genuinely start taking on the roles of responsibility for ourselves and of

those in our surroundings, how much better off can we become as human beings?

Something to really think about perhaps!!!


This has been a good segment of eyebrow raising and maybe even mouth opening

self-evaluations of the hard truths we live in. I would love to hear your views for or

against this dialogue and I will give my best efforts to respond to each one in hopes

of bridging any misunderstandings.


Sincerely,

Timothy