Dear Bob,
I wanted to give you my brief thoughts on the Donald Sterling recording:
1. I agree with you: If someone wants to pay me $1M, then they can be as racist as they want to be. The typical, yet specious, counter to this statement is that I would be a sellout.
A sellout is someone who sacrifices their principles for the sake of money. They funny thing is, the people that will yell, "Sellout!" will never ask me what my principles are. They will assume that since I am a Black man, I must have race as a principle to be valued over money. In other words, the people yelling, "Sellout!" have made a determination about me based solely on my race; that is, the yellers are racists.
2. Why get angry at Sterling? Clearly, the man did not
mind having sex with a minority. I imagine that he liked her because she stroked his ego and because she was good in bed. Maybe they even had a real, deep, intimate connection, but I kinda doubt that. So, he is not racist when it comes to his girlfriends.
He is not a racist when it comes to the people who work for him. He employs people that are good at their job, regardless of skin color.
Black people used to complain about unequal treatment, especially in terms of work. Well, now they have equal treatment, at least on the basketball court, and they are still complaining for more. They want society, through either social pressure or through government involvement, to change a person's heart.
Good luck with that.
I used to teach middle school. When the classroom got loud, I had a choice: I could either yell and tell everyone to be quiet, or I could lower my voice so that it was just above a whisper. Guess which one always worked?
People have gotten enraged over Sterling's comments and are basically shaking their fists at him, threatening him for his racist views. This is not going to change him, nor will it change anyone who is a racist.
The better course of action would be to quietly do your work and to do it to the best of your ability. If you want to influence someone, live your life first and speak second. Often, you won't even need to say anything.
Two other quick notes. Sterling seems to have less of a problem with light-skinned folks as opposed to dark-skinned Black folks. As you alluded to in one of your posts when you mentioned Shaq's rap, the degree of skin pigmentation has been an issue within the Black community. I don't know why Blacks can have feelings about light and dark, but it is taboo for other people to feel that way.
Finally, a hypothetical question for all those people raising a fuss: What if Donald Sterling called Michael Jordan (the only Black owner of an NBA franchise) and said the following: "I will trade you ANY six people in the Clippers organization for any six people in the Charlotte Bobcats organization. Do you think Jordan would do that deal? Of course he would. He would be a fool not to.
Thus, Michael Jordan would have made a financial deal with a racist for the express reason that he (MJ) thought he was going to be financially rewarded and benefited. Isn't this what every person who has played for the Clippers thought when they signed their contract -- I am going to receive a financial benefit? Isn't this the basis for every market transaction?
Victor J. Ward is a long-time EPJ reader, who first came across libertarianism by reading Murray Rothbard's Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy and Walter Block's Defending the Undefendable
.. At first the writings of Rothbard and Block shocked him, but after thinking about it, he realized that Rothbard and Block were right.
Good stuff Mr. Ward. Mr. Wenzel, keep linking/re-posting stuff on this from Steve Sailer; his piece today on Guggenheim Partners, Magic and the Dodgers only reminds us that in order to understand ANY situation, one must simply follow the damn money.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thinking usually brings out the repressed racist in most left wingers. They seem to be incapable of repressing their racist views when a person of color disagrees with them, much the same way the do when a woman disagrees with them.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing listening to all the loons in the media, both left and right, on this issue falling over themselves with all sorts of extremely harsh punishments for this guy, yet I'd be willing to bet that if these same people had all of their most secret conversations recorded, we would hear racist comments at some point from a majority of them. And this goes for blacks and Latino's too.
This +1000
DeletePeople....THINK. NO ONE is perfectly clean and holy. NO ONE. So let's not endorse the bullshit witch hunts the Idiot Left loves doing. Thank you.
"It's amazing listening to all the loons in the media...and this goes for blacks and Latinos too".
DeleteIf one really wanted to find out the truthfulness/falseness of this claim all one would have to do is start a NAAWP (National Association for the Advancement of White People), a Caucasian Defense League, an all white tv station (WET?), have a Miss White America pageant, a Caucasian College Fund, etc., etc., and one would get their answer very quickly I am sure.
Somewhere floating in the brain of every "progressive" is the idea that minorities are too incompetent/stupid to do anything without the helping hand of the "progressive". The "progressive's" own self worth is challenged to its very core when someone says that not only do minorities not need any help from the "progressive" but that most problems afflicting minorities are caused by "progressive" "solutions" and policies. See Cliven Bundy. Even worse is when a minority says that to the "progressive".
ReplyDeleteAs I keep repeating, no "progressive" will bother to understand the NAP or economic calculation, much less basic and simple Thomas Sowell/Walter Williams analysis of race relations and welfare. Simply bringing up these topics means you are a racist racist racist, a hater and a white supremacist. That's the nature of our opponents, for better or worse.
There is no reason to "get angry" at Sterling. Anger is quite generally unhealthy and unhelpful.
ReplyDeleteThere is reason to recognize, however cold-bloodedly, that Sterling's comments reflect something evil. It is the plantation mentality. Sterling is perfectly willing to make a heck of a lot of money off the labor of the mostly black people on his roster, while expressing his contempt for them on explicitly racial grounds.
Yes, he pays them a lot of money. But that hardly reduces the plantation-era scent of it. After all, the NBA has a farm system, the college basketball teams around the country, and in this farm system the athletes, also almost all black, are NOT allowed to make any money. Others are allowed to make money off of them, and the existence of that farm system helps keep the NBA owners like Sterling very rich indeed, so they can continue expressing their contempt for the athletes who make it possible.
Of course the plantation/slave system was made possible by a variety of crutches offered it by the governments of the day. The NCAA/NBA system of our own day is likewise offered a variety of crutches. There is a distinct similarity, and there is a distinct aroma. It is good that some people are taking notice.