Racism, Misogyny and Moral Progress
AKA another post about Donald Sterling.
RT @jadande: Silver made it easy for everyone. So who will do the hard part?
One of the very many excellent questions raised recently, post Donald Sterling’s taped bigotry.
Adam Silver, new NBA Commissioner, has handed down the only punishment he could: Lifetime ban, $2.5 Million fine, and is aiming to force Sterling to sell the Clips.
Credit to Silver on this one. A good decision, the right decision.
In fact, this is actually, in a lot of senses, a good news story. To channel some Hubie Brown for a moment:
You really have to give some credit to:
- Magic Johnson, for being classy and heartfelt in his response, as always.
- Doc Rivers for saying he’ll step down as coach if Sterling stays owner.
- The Clippers players for their protest.
- The rest of the league’s players, coaches and teams for unifying in their response.
- Various special comments guys during games not mincing words as to what they think. Special tip o’ the hat to Jeff Van Gundy.
- And pretty much everyone else. I really haven’t noticed any defence of the indefensible.
That really is the good news. The public response has been almost entirely spot on. Sometimes it’s worth reflecting on the response to things like this for a moment.
For context, let’s digress for a quick (and not exhaustive) history lesson:
- First Black player enters the league in 50-51 season.
- 1961: Players for the Celtics, including Bill Russell, refused service in a restaurant. The players refuse to play in protest. (Just read the linked article. I could call this section the history of Bill Russell being an awesome human being.)
- During the 70s, when the league was struggling, it was just outright ok, apparently, for white people to complain that the league was “too black.”
- 1987: Isiah Thomas calls Bird overrated because he’s white.
- For more on those last two: Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals.
- 2001: Jason Williams needs to learn some history.
I post the Williams link because it’s kind of amazing ignorance. It’s not entirely relevant, but wow, that Pearl Harbor comment is amazing.
So that’s the good news. I call that list, and the various reactions and societal attitudes post the items on it, progress. Slow, steady, and the graph doesn't always go in the right direction, but progress.
But now for the hard part. Here’s some awkward questions for the NBA and society in general:
- The tapes weren't a surprise to anyone with a reasonable grasp of the off court NBA landscape, and he’d made racist comments before in various contexts, but most notably in testimony, which would make it unequivocally known to the NBA, so why didn’t this happen earlier?
- Given the above, why did the Clips and not the Lakers get CP3? Jerry Buss is widely regarded as one of the best owners in American sports history, if not the best, and whatever you think of the whole ownership shtick, I’m relatively sure Buss has never stooped as low as Sterling.
- Also public knowledge — and by that, I mean known to the NBA, and not that long ago — is Sterling’s blatant sexism and penchant for sexual harassment. A quick google tells me there were numerous sexual harassment cases, at least some of which he lost, and we’re talking 1996, and 2003 here, certainly well out of range for anyone wanting to pull the “it was a different time” card. Why is a proven sexual harassment conviction not enough for the same sanctions just dished out?
These questions could all seem rhetorical. It might be easy to just answer Money, Money and Bro/sports/macho culture. In that order. But see above re progress, don’t just stand for those answers. Surely they don’t have to be so?
ps. I was gonna write a bit more about this situation and the same sort of thing happening in Australia, but I think that is best left for a seperate post.
