May 2, 2014
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling
My take on the whole Donald Sterling thing is a little bit different from most. I think that any time we are reminded of the racism that exists in our society, we must take the opportunity to be introspective and to be honest with ourselves regarding our own latent prejudices. I’m sure that if you were to ask Sterling if he is a racist, his answer would be no. As he said in the phone conversation that ignited the whole scandal, he does pay his players handsomely, so what’s the problem?
As an African-American who attended predominantly white schools throughout most of my educational career and who taught at one for almost two full decades, I never considered myself to be someone who held any prejudices against whites. But a couple years ago I wrote an article decrying the fact that American hurdlers were losing races to slower hurdlers from other countries because those foreign hurdlers were better technically. I mentioned that Sally Pearson couldn’t beat any of the American female hurdlers in an open 100 meter dash, yet she was beating them consistently over the hurdles.
Several people emailed me after I wrote that article asking me how I was so sure that Pearson couldn’t beat the Americans in the dash. When I thought about it, I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t do my research. I didn’t check on what the athletes’ best open 100 times were. I just assumed, without even realizing that I was doing so, that because Pearson was white and the Americans were black, they were faster.
So even though I’m not down with what Sterling said, nor with the attitude that inspired his words, I can’t condemn him. My job is not to condemn, but to look in the mirror. If I want to be a part of eradicating racism from society, I have to eradicate all prejudiced thoughts from my own mind. If we want a society that is free of racism, then that’s what we all have to do.
Right now, it’s too easy to say “Donald Sterling is evil and he deserves the punishment he received,” and to leave it at that. We have a common villain whom we can all agree is worthy of our disdain. But it’s not about Donald Sterling. It’s about me. It’s about you. It’s about all of us. Check yourself, and you won’t have to check anyone else.
