Donald Sterling and Mark Cuban Prove Racism Is A Rich Man Problem

Is Mark Cuban starting trouble or starting a conversation?

Last month I posed the question in an article that was titled "If Race Is Our #1 Issue Should It Be Our #1 Conversation"

Within days Donald Sterling happened.  Well, they say he's been happening for some time now, but I am talking about the Donald Sterling the masses have come to know.  You know, the one who confirmed our worst suspicions of him during the Anderson Cooper interview.

I haven't actually checked, but I may have rubbed my own momma wrong with my position on this issue. The fact that Sterling has proven himself to be "whatever" his opponents have accused him of only anchors the argument of many who flatly disagree with my stance on this matter, including mom.

Yet, I shall not be moved.

Stephen A. Smith, and others are calling for a public vote

When evidence of Sterling's malfeasance came to light, it was quickly a war between the right to speak your mind versus the right of the NBA and Adam Silver to disassociate themselves from such disgusting remarks.  In historic fashion, the NBA's best player decided to step to the forefront (Michael Jordan was notoriously quiet at times like this) as the NEW commissioner smelled the potential for league wide retribution from the NBA players with LeBron James in the front of the pack.

Silver was smart enough to realize that declaring whatever the players wanted to hear was hardly going to change the legal ramifications of their desired effort.  The effort to remove Sterling's team may not even prove to be Constitutionally possible. However, long before the Supreme Court get's a chance to hear Donald Sterling .v. The National Basketball Association, the NBA will have to gain the necessary votes to ouster the maligned owner.

Enter the world famous "slippery slope".  When first we crossed this bridge, NBA owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban, warned that there is simply too many biases and prejudices that we are all guilty of to avoid a slippery slope if we attempt to remove Sterling's team from him.

Cuban doubled down recently and added a Treyvon Martin comparison (black man in hoodie) along with a tattoo faced skin head image as people he is likely to cross the street to avoid if confronting on a dark street at night, admitting to his own prejudices while attempting to illustrate that we all have them.  Trust me. I realize that my eloquent depiction is both favorable to my position and that of Mark Cuban, but we are on the same side of this argument so I defend him honorably.

Cuban was said to have made his recent comments in a candid interview.  Do we know Cuban to be anything but candid?  When he could not continue to speak as he did when the Sterling news first broke, he did not speak at all.  Whatever description that is being tagged to the interview from Cuban is a description of his own making.  Mark Cuban, much like Adam Silver, is smelling the winds created by the voice of the NBA's best player.

While listening to Stephen A. Smith address the Donald Sterling fiasco and the news of a June 3rd vote from the team owners, Smith was adamant and direct in his expectation that the vote not only be unanimous, but that it be public for the purpose of determining dissent.  Stephen A. proceeded to declare that he, along with several black sports media types, and Magic Johnson, and LeBron James, were ALL insisting on that public vote. What would give Smith the gumption to speak on behalf of James and Johnson if not James and Johnson?

With the spotlight clearly on him, LeBron remains vocal.

My hunch is another article for another day, but Magic seems to be spear heading this effort and maybe the entire coup.

Magic is great and Stephen A. and his media brothers are loud voices for sure, but it will take the King to drive the ouster of Sterling, and so far he is happy to buy the gas for this journey.  If LeBron had the power to make Silver pound the organ and "Ban Sterling for Life", he certainly might make the owners own up to their votes.  Cuban recognizes this and needs to let LeBron and America understand why he will not vote in favor of Sterling's removal.

It's all about that slippery slope thing that will have the next homophobic owner losing his family treasure because his closest assistant for years turned out to be taping his disgusting homophobic remarks.  To all the voices out there saying "good, he would deserve the same thing Donald is getting", what is next?

Where would this type of social cleansing meet an end?  The courts will have to envision the Pandora's Box they open if professional sports team owners are under 24 hour speech surveillance.  A few owners (not just Cuban) might even be wondering right now what awful things they spoke in the quiet confidence of friends, and who might have captured a recording similar to the one Sterling is under attack for now.  The moment Sterling is voted out, every recorded nasty becomes blackmail gold.

Correction. Every recorded nasty from a professional sports team owner becomes blackmail gold.  Racism is really only a problem in America if someone can hold you accountable for being racist. Poor people with very little to be sued for can continue with your racism, bigotry and  prejudices intact.