Written by Richard Kane   

This country is rapidly growing more unequal and the legal civil rights changes of the 60's are becoming unglued. However some casual comments are being pounced on with a vengeance as supposedly standing up to racism. Clippers owner Donald Sterling was almost crying as he tried to score another date with Vanessa Stiviano, who had already got part of his fortune in his previous dates with her. He was urging her not to parade Magic Johnson, around in front of him, Magic Johnson who Donald Sterling particularly dislikes. It's best to hear the entire sad recording instead of the juicy excerpt,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ogstl6OrNs

This followed sudden anger at Mark Cuban for supposedly offending Trayvon Martin's family. Sports writer Jason Whitlock the only person systematically standing up for Donald Sterling's right to privacy, and condemns the other ownes' hypocrisy, one owner who according to Jason Whitlock, should have been arrested for date rape.

No story has been repeatedly back as a top news story since 9/11, spanning sports trivia all the way to Democracy Now.

In this blog article I did not succeed as much as I would have liked to point out how much these phony attempts to stand up to racism get in the way of the real efforts to do this and fight inequality in general. I hope I will succeed well enough to inspire more skilled progressive writers into realizing how important doing this is. Rather than private comments one should note the tinge of racism against blacks in Civil Rights lawyer Debo Adegbile being canned and against Muslims in voting Iranian Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi to be a terrorist. Amazingly during the Iranian Hostage crisis no competent translators could be located in Tehran, so Hamid came there to translate, and since the hostage takers keep getting more emboldened, delay in translating a press conference could have led the women among the 13 released hostages having to stay with angry male hostage takers for over a year. Media driven hysterics are not to be ignored.



Jason Whitlock, sports star and now actor Terry Crews, and NY Times Ethicist Chuck Klosterman, have been standing up against the fake hysteria about Donald Sterling. Their comments are well worth reading,
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10857268/removing-donald-sterling-la-clippers-owner-fix-our-culture
Skip over the distracting video to the words following the video, and I quote:

“In our zeal to appear righteous or courageous or free of bigotry, a ratings-pleasing mob hell-bent on revenge turned Donald T. Sterling -- a victim of privacy invasion and white supremacy -- from villain to martyr.”
“In a society filled with impurities, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers committed the crime of speaking impure thoughts in the privacy of a duplex he apparently provided for his mistress. And now an angry, agenda-fueled mob provoked NBA commissioner Adam Silver into handing Sterling a basketball death sentence . . .”
Now for Terry Crews' comments,
http://blog.wenn.com/all-news/terry-crews-we-should-forgive-sports-owner-donald-sterling/
And the NY Times ethicist Chuck Kosterman's article,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/what-exactly-was-donald-sterlings-offense.html?_r=0

Sadly, comedian Paul Mooney was lavish in his praise of Donald Sterling and the hysterics against Donald Sterling has spread to him, http://blackamericaweb.com/2014/05/20/paul-mooney-supports-donald-sterling/ I hope those who agree with the dissenters offer him supporting comments.

Donald Sterling when not referring to his taped comments or mentioning Magic Johnson, suddenly sounds sober and rational such as in his response to President Obama joining in the criticism, but this is not what the paparazzi-like media wants to show. Notice how sober he is in this rarely republished broadcast,
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/donald-sterling-president-obama-106707.html

Donald Sterling is playing skilled maneuvers to keep control over the team. The NBA head says he doesn't want his former wife who has half interest in the Clippers to own the team either, so he theoretically gave his half to her as well to challenge the legal base of removing him. Giving away his valuable half instead of selling it to her sounds like an effort to maneuver against having to lose the team. The confusion and counter suits could last for years.

I see two problem solving possibilities for the future. One is Donald Sterling turning over partial control to Jason Whitlock. The owners would really fear Whitlock's caustic comments, and if they stop him from gaining the team be assured that Whitlock would draw blood in response. They would much prefer dealing with Donald Sterling acting like a clown if they could back off.

I have a better suggestion. Donald Sterling thinks Magic Johnson is a bad role model. The truth of the matter is that the media treats the issue of role models as an infomercial, projecting adults that encourage kids to buy more as to be role models. Opera Winfrey would be a major role model if she did a lot more shopping like she was told to do right before her documentary movie “The Butler” came out. She unfortunately slightly played into the Donald Sterling hysteria a little by saying something should be done about his plantation mentality. She has made an incredible amount of money in only wholesome ways, and shares a lot of it. Of course some make a niche by such things as selling new meditation methods, but Oprah is a complete all around commentator and talk show host who sells we are all valuable in a far more complete way. Starting out in dire poverty and somehow advancing without pushing anyone out of the way. She asked to be part owner of the Clippers.

I would like her to comfort, feeling all alone cancer victim Donald Sterling even helping him try to keep symbolic partial ownership of the Clippers and at least reaffirm his right as a human being to attend a sports game if he wishes. A threat by Donald Sterling to otherwise turn the Clippers over to caustic against the owners Jason Whitlock, should make the owners overjoyed to be able to deal with Oprah. Besides, as for doing something about Donald Sterling's plantation mentality, Oprah could help him grow out of it a little.

Links can be clicked at the following link, and updates and spelling corrections can also be viewed,
http://phillyimc.org/en/racism-and-growing-inequality-rampant-donald-sterling-gets-canned-0