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Unless you\u2019ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks, the name \u201cDonald Sterling\u201d has been in the news very predominantly.\u00a0 Donald Sterling is a very, very rich man, easily falling into the category of a billionaire.\u00a0 Donald Sterling is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, a basketball team in the NBA.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the reason Donald Sterling has been in the news over the last two weeks is that Donald Sterling has pretty much been publicly outed as a racist and a bigot, based on a recording between Sterling and his mistress about how Sterling did not like the fact that she had a photograph with her and Magic Johnson, because Magic Johnson is black.\u00a0 And then basically saying he doesn\u2019t want people to bring black people to Clippers games.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time that Donald Sterling has been accusing of being a racist, as he\u2019s been previously accused of showing discriminatory behavior when he showed great reluctance to renting to minorities in some of his investment properties, but it\u2019s very much the first time that audible audio proof has been provided over his discriminatory beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n Needless to say, Donald Sterling\u2019s racist beliefs have not gone over well with, anyone, and pretty much all of America is letting him know this.\u00a0 A lot of people have done a lot of things to express their disdain and disagreement for Donald Sterling so far; his own team\u2019s players wearing their team\u2019s gear inside out, as to obscure the logo,\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0logo, numerous notable African-American figures condemning his bigotry, and numerous entities withdrawing all association with the Clippers, such as sponsors pulling out, and even musical artists refusing to let Sterling\u2019s Clippers play their music at games.<\/span><\/p>\n The biggest action however, has been that as of April 29, 2014, the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, declared that Donald Sterling has been banned from the NBA for life.\u00a0 He is no longer allowed to attend, associate, or conduct any business with the NBA for the rest of his life.\u00a0 Which is going to be a troublesome situation, considering Donald Sterling currently owns an NBA team; naturally Silver is attempting to force Sterling to sell the team, but the last time I checked, Sterling has zero intention to do so and will probably resist and fight any actions taken to try and wrest the team from his possession.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh, and he was also fined $2.5 million dollars, which to a billionaire like Donald Sterling, is basically chump change.<\/span><\/p>\n Many are satisfied with this result, and I understand why they are.\u00a0 The world, much less the NBA doesn\u2019t really need misguided and prejudiced bigots running around in positions of power and authority.\u00a0 The NBA, and probably the rest of the world, would be a better place without Donald Sterling, and anyone like him, being a part of it.<\/span><\/p>\n However, and I know that this could probably upset anyone who will probably read this (all of like three people<\/em>), but I don\u2019t believe that it was right.<\/span><\/p>\n It really boils down to one fact here:\u00a0Donald Sterling is being punished for his opinion<\/strong>\u00a0(and the subsequent dollars to all involved parties said opinion is causing to be lost<\/em>).\u00a0 It\u2019s an awful, ugly opinion, and one that I most certainly do not agree with in any way shape or form, but it is still the opinion of a single person.<\/span><\/p>\n And to me, it makes me ask the question, doesn\u2019t that seem a little\u2026 unconstitutional?<\/span><\/p>\n I entitled this post with a reference to Twelve Angry Men for a reason.\u00a0 Basically, the story of Twelve Angry Men is the trial a homicide case that at first blush seems like a slam dunk guilty verdict that the jurors need to make unanimous.\u00a0 But after the first eleven jurors rush to a guilty verdict, the twelfth juror votes opposite to them, if for anything at all, to get everyone to stop and think about the scenario, because a person\u2019s life was at stake.<\/span><\/p>\n This is not me saying that I think Donald Sterling is innocent for being a racist and an awful human being by any stretch of the imagination, but I can\u2019t help but feel that a lot of the opinions and actions happening in light of this whole situation are awful reactionary and without much thought behind them.<\/span><\/p>\n And I most certainly don\u2019t think it\u2019s right that Donald Sterling is being punished for his opinion, as misguided and horrible of an opinion it is.\u00a0 Ultimately, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is the freedom of speech, and Donald Sterling saying he basically hates black people is technically not something that is illegal for him to say.\u00a0 Sure, it\u2019s something that is universally frowned upon and something most people probably wouldn\u2019t say out in public, but it\u2019s still not illegal.<\/span><\/p>\n Illegal would be outright prohibiting black people from attending Clippers games.\u00a0 That would be discrimination, which is illegal.\u00a0 Saying he would prefer if black people didn\u2019t come to his games, and that he would rather people not bring black people to his games, are still, opinions, and are not illegal.<\/span><\/p>\n Punishing Donald Sterling for something that isn\u2019t illegal, doesn\u2019t seem right to me.\u00a0 I just think it\u2019s unconstitutional.<\/span><\/p>\n To play a little devil\u2019s advocate here too, the story of how the recording came into fruition does stink a little bit of a set-up.\u00a0 Donald Sterling is a racist, but most idiots don\u2019t become billionaires without some intelligence.\u00a0 Needless to say, I\u2019m pretty sure Donald Sterling wouldn\u2019t hold a microphone up to his mouth and state his displeasure for the entire African-American race.\u00a0 I also haven\u2019t yet read anywhere that his mistress\u2019s recording device probably wasn\u2019t sitting in plain sight, either.\u00a0 It also doesn\u2019t help that there\u2019s a reasonable motive to why the mistress would want to set up Donald Sterling too, what with having been sued by Sterling\u2019s wife for fraud in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not excusing Donald Sterling for being a racist, but I can\u2019t help but think that the reveal came from underhanded methods in its own right.\u00a0 (Possibly) discreet recordings of people isn\u2019t illegal either, but there\u2019s also a generally negatively perceived stigma associated with the act.<\/span><\/p>\n The story of Twelve Angry Men ends with\u00a0SPOILER ALERT<\/em>, after a long deliberation, dissection and discussion of all the facts, the jurors ultimately decide that the man convicted of homicide was actually innocent.<\/span><\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t think Donald Sterling is not guilty for being a bigot, but if I can get a little storybook-ish, I do believe that everything would have worked itself out in the end if he weren\u2019t punished.\u00a0 Maybe not nearly as swiftly as an unconstitutional punishment, but there\u2019s no way that Donald Sterling would have been able to remain associated with the NBA that much longer after being outed as a racist.<\/span><\/p>\n Clippers players and coaches could have revolted, even though it\u2019s debatable if players would have dared risk exposure and subsequent dollars to prove a righteous point.\u00a0 Fans would stop coming to games, if the players set the tone.\u00a0 Sponsors would pull and withdraw, reducing the flow of revenue into the team.\u00a0 Day after day, the Clippers would be condemned and loathed as long as Donald Sterling owned the team.\u00a0 The Clippers might be forced to forfeit game after game, when nobody shows up.<\/span><\/p>\n With the franchise immolating from the inside and the out, the value of the team would rapidly diminish and plunge, and racist as he may be, the businessman in Donald Sterling would unload the team on his own volition, before it became worth pennies on the dollar.<\/span><\/p>\n And then the Clippers would have had the perfect groundwork for a storybook revival, where they could have been the NBA\u2019s darling sweetheart team that everyone would want to root for, get mainstream attention like they were the Michael Jordan Bulls, and make a billion dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n Not saying that that\u2019s not impossible now, with the unconstitutional punishment, but a guy like Donald Sterling certainly has the money and resources to prolong this from happening beyond a point where the meaning and symbolism of it all can be reduced greatly.<\/span><\/p>\n The bottom line is that all involved parties from Donald Sterling, Adam Silver, the Clippers, its players, as well as the rest of the NBA has treated this whole scenario the wrong way.\u00a0 They’ve put money at the forefront of what is a way bigger issue, and a golden opportunity to really send powerful messages to the world was completely missed by taking the route of least financial detriment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unless you\u2019ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks, the name \u201cDonald Sterling\u201d has been in the news very predominantly.\u00a0 Donald Sterling is a very, very rich man, easily falling into the category of a billionaire.\u00a0 Donald Sterling is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, a basketball team in the NBA. … Continue reading Donald Sterling, Twelve Angry Men, and playing a little devil\u2019s advocate<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,83,15,89],"class_list":["post-38969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-basketball","tag-observations","tag-og","tag-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38971,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38969\/revisions\/38971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}