Banned for life for his hateful, racist rants. But the dialogue isn't over...no matter what the 24 hour mainstream news cycle says and how quickly they will pounce and salivate over the next news story dripping with controversy and rating spikes. The only way we're going to keep evolving and elevating ourselves past this kind of blissful bigotry is to keep opening our minds, mouths and ears and really connect with each other -- beyond skin colors, ethnicities and race...beyond sexual orientations and religious preferences...beyond mental illnesses, addictions and physical/mental challenges...beyond socioeconomics and class. There's still a lot of work to be done and every single one of us is a vital piece to solving the brutal puzzle of inequality, discrimination and racism. Never underestimate the power one person can wield towards making positive change.
***Check out this opinion piece written in the New Yorker today:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/04/donald-sterlings-race-problemand-ours.html
Okay.
Trying hard to put my feet down and ground myself. Things have been really challenging and chaotic for a while....but I'm slowly catching up to things. Through it all....I've still been tuned into the news of the world around me thanks
to Democracy Now, Mother Jones, AlterNet and other more progressive media. There's something that's been buzzing in my head for several days now...And I know I'm not the only one watching the sensational insanity of the story go deeper and deeper into a disgusting mess of anger and behavior far beyond dysfunction and mental instability.
Is it the latest "Housewives" reality drama with yet more women battling each other and behaving badly on nationwide -- er, WORLDwide -- tv and all forms of media ??
NO.
Is it another ridiculous installment of that Canuckle-head barely 21 year old
teen-pop-wannabe-gangsta-in-desperate-search-for-street-cred-and-publicity
from the Great White North????
Take off, ay.
-- and, again, NOPE (but I did love how Cartman made the Cthulhu smash him while he sang that damn "Baby, baby..." song on Southpark -- ahhh, good times)
NO.......this is all about the shocking racism and bigoted hate flowing out of the (alleged) mouth of the owner of the LA Clippers. I could write an intense series of novels (and maybe several research papers) about how I'm feeling
right now, but, like many others, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the bizarre info swirling around this (allegedly) hateful man. I just read the newest litany of his past record of disgusting discrimination touching on the housing controversy he was wrapped up in and other
related racially-tinged barbs flowing out of his mouth. Here's the latest of what I just read on Yahoo: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shockingly-awful-donald-sterling-stories-140632940.html
I can't stop thinking about the phrase "Plantation Mind." Ever since I heard the (ALLEGED)remarks he crowed about being the reason why his players have things like clothes and houses, admiring their "black bodies" and so much else, I can't help but think about that confused, racist rancher guy in Nevada who Jon Stewart picked apart for his brilliant musings on slavery and knowing "things about the negroes" -- um...yup:
Check out this glorious bit from Stewart's show from last week: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/yg0l9e/the-welfare-rancher-on-the-merits-of-slavery
I just can't shake it. The more I think of that NBA owner's (ALLEGED) sick, racist ranting and bigoted past, I can't stop thinking of the brutal "mandingo fighting" scene from Tarantino's Django Unchained. Wealthy racist owner making his big bucks from watching a team of his predominantly Black men he "owns" through their contracts and other stipulations sweat, work and beat their asses into exhaustion for him? Don't get me wrong....I've loved watching basketball and other professional sports since I was a kid back in the 70's cheering for the Chicago Bulls, Cubs, Da Bears and the Chicago Sting (our very first soccer team). I grew up with plenty of kids who would be out playing basketball at local basketball courts til nearly midnight because they were so into their games. I know there are men who passionately breathe, eat and sleep the sports they play because they adore the game as much as anyone else in the world lucky to be working a job they always dreamed of having. I know many play for the love of the game, without a doubt. I just can't help but think of the glaring comparisons I see swirling around this guy -- not to mention the other white wealthy sports team owners out there with similar racist beliefs (anyone remember Marge Schott???). The more things change...the more they stay the same. It's time for serious in-depth dialogues and action. There's no excuse for anyone to be able to get away with this kind of seething bigotry, particularly someone with such strong power over the lives of others.
