Initially, I was as shocked as anyone else when I heard the now infamous reports of what Donald Sterling, Clippers owner for 33 years, said about African Americans in the recorded speech to his then girlfriend V. Stiviano (BTW, does anyone know why she DOESN'T have a true first name?). But after thinking through the situation a little more, I wasn't so much as shocked as saddened that this incident only validated certain beliefs that I've had for some time about America and where we stand in the fight against racism. From this, I think we can all learn three valuable lessons that should allow us to understand our world a little better and do whatever we can to make it better. If we truly internalize these and take the right appropriate steps when prompted, we have the opportunity to continue to move our country in the right direction. These lessons are:
THE FIGHT ISN'T OVER
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ban by the Michigan voter's of affirmative action in consideration for students to their universities is disturbing because it intimates that all races are all on the same playing field and the effects of Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement are no longer felt upon the world. The problem with this is that it simply isn't true. While Donald Sterling comments were extremely disturbing because it showed a blatant feeling of negativity towards a race for no reason other than color, it is even more disturbing because Donald Sterling worked in a business in reach he had to interact with this race the majority of the time. Eighty percent of the NBA players are black and the NBA has more black executives than any other major league sport in the United States. This is so disturbing because it meant that while Donald Sterling was courting Doc Rivers and slapping him on the back telling him how much he wanted him to coach his team to help the Clippers win a championship, in his heart he would have had nothing to do with Doc Rivers if he felt he didn't HAVE TO. This leads me to my belief that there are still many individuals in the world who still have negative feelings towards others outside of their race who hide it all the time because it is now not publicly acceptable to be this type of person. Not only would they be at risk of losing their job for the publishing of such negative opinions, they would also be subject to the possibility of losing lots of many due to the very fact that minorities have proven these negative opinions of them unwarranted through their ascension to the higher levels of business and would probably not have anything to do with this type of person. However, this still subtly "creeps" out when they are thinking about the next person to promote and choose the white-male candidate over the non-white female candidate because of those "intangibles." This could also come into play when they are choosing between admitting a black student to a school versus a white student because they feel the white student would be a better "culture fit." It is not overt racism that is the problem in America. No one is stupid enough to be that person. It is the subtle, subvert racism that still exist in many people minds (many whom are in a position of power) that has to be consistently checked and fought against by the minority population.
RACISM "ALLOWANCE" IS AN EPIDEMIC THAT IS ACTUALLY WORSE THAN RACISM ITSELF
One of the more disturbing things about Donald Sterling is that there is little doubt that many people that claim to NOT be racist were aware of Donald's subtle feelings toward minorities and did not check them as unacceptable. We have all been guilty of hearing someone tell a sexist, racist, or gay joke in the veil of "safety" and didn't let that person that those types of jokes are unacceptable. Some of us may even have laughed at it. With Donald Sterling, there is no doubt that his wife, Shelly Sterling, (who now desires to have 51% ownership of the Clippers) knew that he was this type of person during their 50 years of marriage. How is it possible for someone to be married to someone for so long with such negative views against a particular group and think this is okay? This is where I believe the ball was dropped by those who knew this about Donald Sterling. Tommy Lasorda, a man who has managed black players for many years in the MLB was recently quoted as saying that he "hope V Stiviano gets hit with a car." He was also quoted as saying that he was not "surprised" that Donald Sterling said those things but considers him a long time friend. The issue here is that many people feel like just because we may not directly feel that way, it is okay to laugh at jokes the intimate racism, sexism, or gender bias. It's okay to associate ourselves with individuals who say and do these things, as long as we don't say and do those things. The truth is that it's not. As long as we allow people to feel "safe" when they say things of this nature around others who look like them, then we will never be in a world that will eliminate such hate talk from existing. We all have an individual responsibility to do our part to educate others on their hate comments and make sure that we are not condoning the behavior by laughing or continually associating ourselves with that person, regardless of how powerful or wealthy they are.
TAKING THE HIGH ROAD IS STILL THE WAY TO GO
The final lesson that I think we can all take away from this is from Magic Johnson's response to Donald Sterling. While Magic Johnson had the chance (and the justifiable right) to lash back at Donald Sterling after his comments about how Magic acquired HIV, he did not. He could have easily pointed out the fact that Donald Sterling was no saint himself by having his public girl since 2010 while still married to Shelly Sterling. Instead, he decided to take the high road and say he hopes that Donald gets help, and he is "praying" for him. He also commented that if he sees Donald and his wife Sherry, he will speak to both of them and continue on his way. While I'm sure this will not be easy for Magic to do, it is reminiscent of the response of the so many people during the Civil Rights Movement in which they were lashed out against by individuals who thought they were the scum of the earth, but they refused to retaliate in a manner that would give them any satisfaction that these feelings were true. Instead, they demonstrated their true higher moral character by "turning the other cheek" and continuing to demonstrate that someone's else ignorance was not going to affect how they feel about themselves and how they treat other people...something that often stings much more than any direct attack could.
While America has come a LONG way in regards to racial equality and relations, we are subtly reminded with events like this from time to time (e.g. L.A. Riots, O.J. Simpson case, Obama Election) that we are not quite yet "there" when it comes to not having to think or talk about it anymore. While I don't truly believe that we will ever get to place in which race doesn't matter, it will take continual honest conversation about events such as this to move the rock ever closer to Martin Luther King's eventual Utopian societal dream of equality for all.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
