A “Black-Paper” by
‘Baba’ Amefika D. Geuka
January 9, 2015
During the latter half of 2014 the public was treated to an interesting and perplexing spectacle: Donald Sterling, the long time owner of the National Basketball Association’s “Los Angeles Clippers” team, was accused by his young mistress of being a racist for comments he allegedly made to her in private conversations. Self-righteous folks across the nation — black and white — jumped on the “Donald Sterling is a racist” bandwagon as though they had a personal stake in the matter. If Sterling were some sort of an exception, i.e.; the only NBA owner who holds “racist” views of black people, the feigned alarm might have been understandable. However, given the make-up (race and class) of NBA owners as a whole, Sterling’s only distinction was his obvious lack of sophistication and “stumble-bum” way of handling his affairs. He simply lacked ‘finesse’ and ‘savvy.’ He also spoke candidly about his feelings. What happened to the ‘good old days’ when most thinking black folks acknowledged that it was easier to deal with overt racists than with “liberals’ who hid their true feelings, because the bigots let you know up front that they hated your guts, and you were forewarned what to expect from them? Does anyone think that Donald Sterling is any more of a racist than Mark Cuban? Cuban is too smart and ‘slick’ to give voice to such opinions when he wants the blacks on his Mavericks team to perform at their best in an effort to win him another coveted NBA championship. After all, he and other NBA owners, the league itself, and TNT network have Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to do their dirty work for them! Because those two mouthpieces are themselves negroes, they are routinely ‘given a pass’ by black folks for statements that would cause an explosive outcry if voiced by a white person. Comments attributed to Sterling were far less incendiary than the drivel escaping from the mouths of Barkley and his sidekick O’Neal — insults that were made live on national television — not in the quietude of a man’s boudoir to his kept-woman plaything.
Unlike most blacks, I make a distinction between “white supremacy” and “racism,” and accordingly, between a “white supremacist” and a “racist.” To me, ALL white people are white supremacists in that they all believe that the entire world and everybody and thing in it are better off having white people in control of everything! White supremacists believe in their ‘heart-of-hearts’ that they are “God’s chosen people,” that God Itself gave white folks “dominion” over It’s creation and handiwork. ‘Racists,’ on the other hand, are an active ‘vanguard’ among white supremacists who form a ‘strike-force’ against any real or perceived threat to the dominance and control exercised by white people. Put another way, racists are to white supremacists what the armed military forces are to a nation; and what police/law-enforcers are to local populations. Two million men and women under arms protect the other 316,000,000 or so in the total U.S. population from foreign threats; and a police force of 35,000-plus ‘protects’ New York City’s other eight million citizens on the domestic front. While white supremacists as a whole do not necessarily hate or despise non-white people, they do feel innately superior to them. Racists, on the other hand, hold non-whites in utter contempt, just as the nation’s military are conditioned to hate and despise foreigners whom they are assigned to kill without provocation; and police are conditioned to view regular citizens generally as “bad-guys,” and black citizens in particular as “scum.”
By my definition then, Donald Sterling is probably not a racist per se, but he and his fellow NBA ‘owners’ are without doubt, white supremacists. How and why then was Sterling singled-out for his white supremacist attitude and comments, but his fellow owners got away ‘clean?’ I suspect it is because the other owners themselves wanted Sterling out of their “club.” After all, his only real friend among the owners was the late Dr. Jerry Buss, who reportedly was responsible for helping Sterling get an NBA franchise in the first place. With Buss gone, and a different breed of “nouveau-riche” individuals joining the ranks of franchise owners, Donald Sterling had become an embarrassment and needed to go. As is so often the case with the ownership class, they saw the opportunity to have unthinking black people do their ‘dirty-work’ for them, thus the over-stated claims that Sterling was suddenly too much of a racist to be allowed to keep his team.
If there had been any sincerity at all to the claims by the league’s Commissioner and owners, Sterling’s downfall could and should have been an opportunity to allow more blacks to join the ranks of franchise owners. Oprah Winfrey alone could have purchased the team, and most assuredly there was more than enough financial muscle among the ten or fifteen richest black athletes and/or entertainers that a group of them could have put the financial package together. What then was the reason for passing on that rare opportunity to expand the number of blacks who own an NBA franchise? I am convinced the “deal-was-in-the-white-house” (as in a foregone conclusion) from the inception. The league and its owners merely ‘toyed’ with the prospect of Sterling’s team being sold to blacks.
So “poor old” Donald Sterling was ‘forced’ to sell his franchise to yet another noveau-riche white guy for an astounding four-times its value! The man bought the franchise for less than $13 million, watched its value increase to $500 million, then is forced to sell it for $2 Billion! That’s some kind of punishment, and I am certain Donald Sterling, his wife, and his mistress — are all laughing all the way to the bank!!
Given the role that black folks played in bringing about this result, I can say with certainty that…with enemies like black people, Donald Sterling did not need any friends!
