By Jeff Simpson
For those who have not been paying attention to the NBA, one of the owners, Donald Sterling went off on a racist rant to his girlfriend. The result of this rant caused much uproar within the NBA community and the sports world as a whole.
Embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has lost his bid to block the $2bn (£1.18bn) sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.The deal has been negotiated by Mr Sterling's estranged wife Shelly Sterling.
Mrs Sterling said she had taken over the family trust that owns the team because doctors found Mr Sterling had signs of Alzheimer's disease and could not manage his affairs.
He sought to block the sale, saying his wife had deceived him about the medical exams and at one point calling her a "pig" in court.
The 80-year-old billionaire was banned by the National Basketball Association after he made offensive remarks about black people.
The saga began in April when a recording surfaced of Mr Sterling scolding his young girlfriend for bringing black men to Clippers games.
The NBA moved quickly to ban him for life and fined him $2.5m (£1.4m).
Recently, the NBA had to deal with a similar situation as the owner of the Atlanta Hawks was busted sending a racist intra-office email to his fellow executives of the team.
Mr. Levenson knew what he wrote was wrong and the NBA jumped in immediately to do damage control.For the second time this year, the owner of a professional basketball team will sell his controlling interest of a franchise after his racially insensitive views were made public.Bruce Levenson, who has led the ownership group of the Atlanta Hawks since 2004, informed N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver on Saturday that he intended to sell the team, effectively cutting short a league investigation into an email that Mr. Levenson sent two years ago to fellow Hawks executives detailing his thoughts on how the team could attract more white fans.On Sunday, when the issue came to light, the Hawks released the text of the August 2012 email, in which Mr. Levenson speculated that the team’s black fans had “scared away the whites” and that there were “not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base.”“I think Southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority,” Mr. Levenson said in his email, pointing out that he had earlier told the executive team that he wanted “some white cheerleaders” and “music familiar to a 40-year-old white guy,” and that he thought “the kiss cam is too black.”
Yes it is the year 2014, yes racism is still there and yes people are still emailing racist emails and having racist conversations in private. Most of us know it is not OK. Most of us know there is no place for that in our society.“If you’re angry about what I wrote, you should be,” he said. “I’m angry at myself, too. It was inflammatory nonsense. We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race, but my role as a leader is to challenge them, not to validate or accommodate those who might hold them.”Mr. Silver, the commissioner, responded in a statement, “As Mr. Levenson acknowledged, the views he expressed are entirely unacceptable and are in stark contrast to the core principles of the National Basketball Association.”
The NBA gets it. The State of Wisconsin and the republican party do not!
In the document dumps of Scott Walker's emails (#Walkerdocs), we have found many racist and disgusting emails.
All sent intra-office emails(on Government taxpayer funded email systems) from Walker Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli to Kelly Rindfleisch and copied to an unknown recipient list(which all signs point to Scott Walker being included on).
Scott Walker @ScottWalker
Paying my respects to the family of Tom Nardelli. He was a great public servant and a good friend.
Apparently sending enough racist jokes to the Walker troops makes one a great public service. One thing different about Nardelli though, is that he was an equal opportunity smearer.
Update, 12:30 p.m. CST: On pages 8,921 and 8,922 of WalkerDocs 2,
we find Walker's county chief of staff Thomas Nardelli passing along a
racist email smearing Muslims. It is titled, "Tolerance." Nardelli
comments, "After the candidate forum, this will put a smile on your face
for certain!"
I am perplexed that so many are against a mosque being built near Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. The mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/02/187082/biggest-revelations-scott-walkers-really-bad-day#sthash.WsXKHDGl.dpuf
That is why I also propose, that two gay nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque thereby promoting tolerance within the mosque. We could call the clubs "The Turban Cowboy" and "You Mecca Me So Hot".
Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork and have an open barbeque with spare ribs as its daily special. Across the street a very daring lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret" with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.
Next door to the lingerie shop, there would be room for an Adult Toy Shop (Koranal Knowledge?), its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side a liquor store, maybe call it "Morehammered"
Update, 12:30 p.m. CST: On pages 8,921 and 8,922 ofWalkerDocs 2, we find Walker's county chief of staff Thomas Nardelli passing along a racist email smearing Muslims. It is titled, "Tolerance." Nardelli comments, "After the candidate forum, this will put a smile on your face for certain!"I am perplexed that so many are against a mosque being built near Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. The mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.That is why I also propose, that two gay nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque thereby promoting tolerance within the mosque. We could call the clubs "The Turban Cowboy" and "You Mecca Me So Hot".Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork and have an open barbeque with spare ribs as its daily special. Across the street a very daring lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret" with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.Next door to the lingerie shop, there would be room for an Adult Toy Shop (Koranal Knowledge?), its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side a liquor store, maybe call it "Morehammered
Update, 12:30 p.m. CST: On pages 8,921 and 8,922 of WalkerDocs 2,
we find Walker's county chief of staff Thomas Nardelli passing along a
racist email smearing Muslims. It is titled, "Tolerance." Nardelli
comments, "After the candidate forum, this will put a smile on your face
for certain!"
I am perplexed that so many are against a mosque being built near Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. The mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/02/187082/biggest-revelations-scott-walkers-really-bad-day#sthash.WsXKHDGl.dpu
That is why I also propose, that two gay nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque thereby promoting tolerance within the mosque. We could call the clubs "The Turban Cowboy" and "You Mecca Me So Hot".
Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork and have an open barbeque with spare ribs as its daily special. Across the street a very daring lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret" with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.
Next door to the lingerie shop, there would be room for an Adult Toy Shop (Koranal Knowledge?), its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side a liquor store, maybe call it "Morehammered"
Why would we expect more out of an NBA franchise owner than we do our very own Governor? Why would the national and local press not demand answers about the racist emails floating around Walkers upper staff? Who exactly was on the anonymous recipient list? Did anyone in the Walker inner circle ask to be excluded from the racist emails? Where are the people in the republican party appalled by this behavior? Is this the behavior we want our children to model? have his children followed in his footsteps? Has anyone ever apologized for this filth? Are there still racist emails flowing through the inner circle? What else are they hiding from us?
So many questions met with complete silence by Scott Walker and the people of Wisconsin deserve so much more!
The NBA appeals to fans of all colors. Whereas the whiteness of Scott Walker's base believes the real racists are those who think Donald Sterling and Bruce Levenson are racists. Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes have a deep library of racist comments that caused no repercussions from their bosses or their listeners. That tells you that the base and the power structure that supports Scott Walker are more likely to laugh and share Nardelli's disgusting emails, then to take actions to stop the ignorance and hate.
ReplyDeleteThat's also why Brian Sikma is hired to write propaganda for Walker. Both the financiers and target audience of Media Trackers are comfortable racists.