by Meghna Kumar
On May 19 the National Basketball Association charged Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, for harming the reputation of the league with his racist comments.
A few weeks ago, Sterling’s personal assistant, V. Stiviano, released a video of a conversation between Sterling and herself, in which Sterling made racist remarks against African and Mexican Americans. The video was nine minutes long and in it, Sterling states, “You go to Israel, the blacks are just treated like dogs.” Sterling also asserted that Stiviano was not allowed to bring African Americans to Clippers’ basketball games. An instagram photo of V. Stiviano and Magic Johnson, an African American former player for the Los Angeles Lakers, instigated their quarrel. At the end of the video, Stiviano accuses him of racism and Sterling denied that he is a racist by stating, “There’s no racism here. If you don’t want to be… walking… into a basketball game with a certain… person, is that racism?”
Sterling is a millionaire and the team that brought him his fame and fortune is predominantly African American. The NBA is currently trying to terminate Sterling’s ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers team and fine him for $2.5 million. The hearing is scheduled for June 3.
EagleView News 