MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
donald sterling racist comments
A well-informed person would have observed that the players handled the entire situation very intelligently. They were strategic in their demands and patient in their response. This is a game of chess -- it's not checkers. Unfortunately, many criticizers simply didn't understand that.
That's precisely why racism holds on within America. In the privacy of our homes, clubs, and offices -- and in the tradeoff of philanthropy and what we perceive as the greater good -- we ignore our values, dismiss and rationalize them.
His racism got all the headlines, but there was something to be learned from Donald Sterling's other words. It is worth considering his usefulness as a representative sample of the oligarchical class.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Professional sports owners are largely untouchable. But what happened this week with Clippers owner Donald Sterling proves that once an owner threatens the financial welfare of the league and the other owners, he's gotta go.
It will take a well-heeled knot of investors to plop down the kind of cash needed for the purchase of the team, if and when Sterling does sell. Despite the loud calls for him to get out of the business, and Adam Silver's vow to do everything within his very limited power to try to push him out the door, the call is still Sterling's.
The harm to Sterling that is contemplated by those predicting antitrust litigation is apparently that he will be forced to sell at a depressed price, but that doesn't sound like antitrust injury to me.
