BALTIMORE, Maryland April 29, 2014 - Donald Sterling is a racist. Possibly the most assuredly true statement anyone can make on this 29th day of April, 2014 is that Donald Sterling is a racist. He is and he has been, and the problem for the NBA, now that it has done away with Sterling, and to a lesser extent, the problem for the NAACP, now that Sterling has been made persona non grata, is that this is not breaking news. That Donald Tokowitz Sterling is a racist is not a secret; anyone with any sense has known it for some time. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is and has been an open truth. One of the oldest tricks in the book for racists such as Donald Sterling, who own real estate, is to attempt to keep minorities from purchasing a subdivided unit in that real estate. Say you own an "upscale" apartment house, like Donald Sterling does. And say you want all of the folk renting units in the building to be white, like Donald Sterling did. You direct your agents, who are showing the units to prospective renters or buyers, to make one kind of sales pitch to white folk and one kind of sales pitch to persons of color. But the sales pitches are not the same. The ones made to white folk are intended to get them to buy or rent. The ones made to persons of color are intended to make them go away and live somewhere else.
The federal government sued Donald Sterling for doing this. It was quite public. And Donald Sterling knew he was going to lose, so he settled the case for half of the national debt. You do not cough up the kind of money Donald Sterling did to settle a suit brought by the federal government unless you are pretty darn sure you are going to get hammered in court. Wikipedia reports this about the two cases: "The suit alleges Sterling once said he did not like to rent to Hispanics because they "smoke, drink and just hang around the building," and that "Black tenants smell and attract vermin."[15] In November 2009, ESPN reported that Sterling agreed to pay a fine of $2.73 million to settle claims brought by the Justice Department and Davin Day of Newport Beach that he engaged in discriminatory rental practices against Hispanics, blacks, and families with children.[16] In addition, Sterling was also ordered to pay attorneys' fees and costs in that action of $4,923,554.75. In granting the attorney's fees and costs Judge Dale S. Fischer noted "Sterling's' scorched earth' litigation tactics, some of which are described by the Plaintiffs' counsel and some of which were observed by the Court. The Court has no difficulty accepting Plaintiffs' counsel's representations that the time required to be spent on this case was increased by defendant's counsel's often unacceptable, and sometimes outrageous conduct."
In Baltimore, the respected Civil Rights Organization Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. has for years combatted this type of old racist activity by sending testers to such units. The first couple to go in will be white. They will express interest and inform the showing agent that they want to rent a unit. They then make sure and certain notes of what is offered. Later, a black couple that is exactly the same as the white couple - save for the color of their skin - goes to the same apartment house and asks for the same thing. If they aren't offered the same thing, you get a pretty good idea that the owner is a racist.
So the cat was out of the bag for Sterling. In his world he paid black people the going rate, but he didn't want them to come all that near to him. He didn't want "his women" to be seen with them. He was a despicable hypocrite. I'd like to get sick when I heard this jerk on that tape acting like he was the one who was bestowing riches on the lads who played on his team. They were making him rich. It really wasn't the other way around. If Sterling wasn't the owner, fifty other guys were waiting in line to do the same thing. It was nothing but an ego trip, and then he talked down to the people making money for him. Scoundrel. And now, a scoundrel without a place to show off.
I do have some questions for the NBA and the NAACP. We get it that he is a racist and we applaud the NBA for their swift action. But if the NBA is putting the boom down now, what were they doing when the federal government was suing him for being a racist in the housing market? Were they confused about why he was being sued? Did they know he was being sued and did they know why? I hope they missed the boat and didn't know. That's pretty bad, but it's better than if they knew but didn't do anything. Same goes for the NAACP. They were about to give Sterling a "lifetime achievement award." Did the NAACP not know that the federal government hammered him for openly discriminating in housing? I hope not.
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