NBA: the New Bully Association

Few things anger me more than false bigotry. Greedy money whores throwing a smoke screen of racism in order to extort more money would do it though.

It angers me because I am bi-racial. A descendant of parents who married well before Loving v. Virginia. So I'm crystal clear on what real racism and bigotry looks, feels, smells, walks and talks like.

Real racism looks like being denied a travel visa into South Africa because you are listed as "colored."

Real racism looks like not being hired for a position, or being hired but being paid far less or not being "promote-able" because of the color of your skin.

Real racism looks like a steady boyfriend who is fine dating you but when it comes down to it, doesn't want to marry you because "he doesn't want his kids to not be white."

What it doesn't sound like is: "hey, you're not going to go stand over by those blacks are you?"  STUPID sounds like that though.

I'm not a basketball fan, and I could care less about the Clippers or Mr. Sterling.

My problem is with the players who cry WOLF. You can tell they are crying wolf because:

--Sterling's "outrageous racism" didn't seem to keep them from taking his green money.
--The "outrageous racism" didn't seem to keep them from signing million dollar contracts.
--The "outrageous racism" didn't keep them from playing basketball in his organization.
--The "outrageous racism" seems to be paying ALL players the same (more or less) regardless of skin color.
--The "outrageous racism" seems to be resulting in player court time based on the content of their skill rather than the color of their skin.

Today during Commissioner Silver's press conference, a reporter asked THE KEY QUESTION. It was: "Several players have stated that because of this remark, they should be allowed out of their contracts and allowed to become free agents. Are you going to permit this?"

THERE IT IS. THAT'S the REAL reason why Sterling's a racist all of a sudden. Greedy, money hungry prima donna basketball players, figure they can get more money AFTER a playoff (presuming they actually win) and want out of their contracts. 

Oh, and in the process, since money makes the world go 'round, we'll threaten to boycott playing in the playoffs to create a false crisis and bully the NBA to placate us. 

Sterling may be all his detractors claim for all I know. But answer me this: would a real racist hire someone of a different skin color? Let alone a whole team?

Uh, NO.

Would a real racist pay someone of a different skin color MILLIONS of dollars, multiple times?

Uh, NO.

A real racist wouldn't have anything to do with anyone outside of his or her own ethnic group.

The Clipper players are right about one thing though. MLK famously intoned that one day people should be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. That day has arrived, and Clipper players? Your character sucks.

Your character sucks because real racism still exists in the world, but it doesn't exist on this particular basketball court. Your character sucks because you engage smoke and mirror tactics to falsely cry racism in order to hide your ugly desire for more fame and money. Your character sucks because people (stupidly) look to "you", thinking that a person of color will always and only, illuminate what real racism looks like. 

Your character sucks because rather than light a true path, you lead people down a false one.