I Respectfully Disagree with Mr. Abdul-Jabbar

[Mr. Mustard]

Excerpt from Kareem's Post

"And now the poor guy’s girlfriend (undoubtedly ex-girlfriend now) is on tape cajoling him into revealing his racism. Man, what a winding road she led him down to get all of that out. She was like a sexy nanny playing “pin the fried chicken on the Sambo.” She blindfolded him and spun him around until he was just blathering all sorts of incoherent racist sound bites that had the news media peeing themselves with glee."

Sir, the very rich and powerful own our politicians, they have money to rig the game, they are destroying our country and you suggest, and nobly I add, that we're supposed to play by rules when they don't?

You said yourself Donald Sterling did the following and I quote you:

•2006: U.S. Dept. of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination. Allegedly, he said, “Black tenants smell and attract vermin.”
•2009: He reportedly paid $2.73 million in a Justice Dept. suit alleging he discriminated against blacks, Hispanics, and families with children in his rentals. (He also had to pay an additional nearly $5 million in attorneys fees and costs due to his counsel’s “sometimes outrageous conduct.”)
•2009: Clippers executive (and one of the greatest NBA players in history) sued for employment discrimination based on age and race.

Yet, Sterling was not stopped nor punished. That is the point Sir, we have little power or influence and it's getting less each passing year.

No, when I see a powerful person abusing Americans and America and their political buddies and other buddies of the old rich white boys club wink at it, I will do everything in my power including breaking quaint rules designed to keep the middle class and poor down any way I can.

[JoePhilly]

1. Looks to me as if you stopped reading the article after the part you snipped.

Did you miss this part?

What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise. Now there’s all this dramatic and very public rending of clothing about whether they should keep their expensive Clippers season tickets. Really? All this other stuff I listed above has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge? That’s the smoking gun?

He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?

[Fred Sanders]

2. The idiot social media is making idiots of us all, but sometimes there is karma involved.

[brush]

3. You are right of course — but so is Jabbar

Sterling needs to be punished but Jabbar is right in asking why we (collectively) weren't outraged before about Sterling's racist dealings.

I do disagree with him on equating the release of vidoe with the racist statements to the whole NSA fiasco. But all and all his philosophical musings on the matter are not that far off.

[LiberalElite]

5. and what was up with

the local NAACP wanting to give Sterling a Lifetime Achievement award???

[busterbrown]

7. National Association for Advancement of Colored People?

They still refer to themselves as “Colored? They are perpetually stuck in the past.
Anyway Sterling pays them off once a year. Or maybe 2 times every 4 years..

Anyway after all the racist crap he has pulled off for 25 yrs, he hopes God will view him as a person who really cares about the less fortunate..

[BootinUp]

4. Not I. Jabbar wrote an excellent piece there. nt

[LoisB]

6. I totally agree with Kareem.