Make no mistake: Donald Sterling's crime was being stupid. Donald Sterling's crime was getting caught on tape. Donald Sterling's crime WAS NOT -- contrary to popular belief -- being a racist. No, Donald Sterling was a very successful racist for many years with impunity and very few of those same (now) outraged, liberal white folks said a thing. In fact, plenty of people knew that he was a bigot; problem was, only people of color knew about his racism. And it's an unwritten rule America: UNLESS 1) a white person co-signs what people of color say about racist behavior from other white people, 2) or it's caught on tape (either video or audio will do), people of color are simply unqualified to identify racism/white supremacy for ourselves. We're not objective, evidently. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Sterling got caught and that the NBA is taking serious action, but good gravy -- this is what it takes to make white people believe what people of color have been saying about him for years? Finally, a tape that corroborates decades of complaints from people of color, from Elgin Baylor to Kareem Abdul Jabbar to numerous Black and Latinos who said his rental company refused to rent to them. No action from the NBA or the many liberal white folks who are now aghast at his tape. After all, those folks are just Latino or Black -- what do they know about racism? But now that there's a tape? "Hey, y'know what? This Donald Sterling character is kinda a racist!"Get the Story:
Gyasi Ross: Donald Sterling, the Rules of Racism, and White Saviors: Our Word Will Never Be Enough (The Huffington Post 6/4)
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