The owner of the Los Angeles Clippers is in the middle of a racist controversy as his team fights for its life in the NBA playoffs.
Recordings of a conversation owner Donald Sterling had with his former girlfriend, V. Stiviano, have been leaked to the media, causing a major firestorm, according to The Los Angeles Times.
While on a trip to Malaysia, President Barack Obama said that the comments about black people show that “the United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and discrimination. When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk. That’s what happened here.”
Sterling’s own team, the Clippers protested the man prior to their game on Sunday. They refused to wear their warm-up shirts and threw them in a pile at midcourt. They also wore their shooting shirts inside-out in an effort to hide the team logo. The players wore black socks and black wristbands.
“I’m completely outraged,” a statement from Michael Jordan said. Jordan owns the Charlotte Bobcats. “There is no room in the NBA — or anywhere else — for the kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed.”
The Los Angeles chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said that it will not honor Sterling as scheduled next month with a lifetime achievement award.
The recordings provide the following: “Don’t come to my games. Don’t bring black people and don’t come.”
“It’s the world. You go to Israel, the blacks are treated like dogs.”
“And are the black Jews less than the white Jews?” Stiviano asks.
“A hundred percent,” he says.
“And is that right?” Stiviano asks.
“It isn’t a question,” he replies. “We don’t evaluate what’s right and wrong, we live in a society. We live in a culture, we have to live within that culture.”
Stiviano is black and Mexican and she asks Sterling if he knows his team is mostly black.
“Do I know?” he says. “I support them and give them food, and clothes and cars and houses.”
“The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and discrimination,” the president said during a meeting with the Malaysian prime minister. “We’ve made enormous strides,” he added, “but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often.”
The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, said the league’s investigation could be complete within days. The league said the investigation could lead to fines and even a suspension for Sterling.