Donald Sterling encounters the racialist "lynch mob"

By Sylvia Thompson

I am not a sports fan, but despite my attempts to avoid the Left's latest racial drama, and all those white folks out there trying so hard to prove that they are not racists, I thought I should add my take to the myriad others bombarding the airwaves. On the issue of whether Donald Sterling, owner of the Clippers basketball team, should have been forced to sell his team, I say resoundingly "No." In a free society, an owner of private property determines if and when to sell his property, and to whom he sells it.

Donald Sterling appears to be a foolish old man used by an adulterous, much younger woman. Many such foolish old men have been so used since the beginning of time. If Donald Sterling were a foolish old black man cavorting with an adulterous white woman, I can envision a similar response as Sterling's. Upon learning that his young, white adulteress is flitting about town with a younger, more virile white man, instead of the rant that Sterling delivered, we would have been treated to invectives such as "cracker" or "honky" or "white trash."

The telling factor in this fiasco is how illogical and inconsistent the behavior of some so-called conservatives proved to be. I take Sean Hannity of Fox News as an example. He has been front and center proclaiming that Donald Sterling should lose his team for his perceived racist remarks. Never mind that the remarks were made in the privacy of his home and would never have been heard were it not for the adulteress's taping of the conversation without his knowledge. Whatever happened to the sanctity of a man's home so cherished by conservative dogma?

I also learned that everybody involved with Sterling, knew of the man's proclivities for years. I am still wondering why his highly paid black athletes did not abandon the team long ago if Sterling was such a Simon Legree.* What has changed to make everyone suddenly so conscientious? Could it be the racial disharmony spawned by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that causes the natives to be so restless?

Obama and Holder are the two people most responsible for the severe climate of racial hatred in the country today. They have done little to nothing to heal racial wounds exacerbated for decades by the liberal Left. To the contrary, they have wielded their immense political powers perniciously and are now the force behind the racialist mentality that is suffocating the culture. This mentality is behind the veritable lynch mob that Donald Sterling has had the misfortune to encounter.

Hannity was also quick to condemn Cliven Bundy upon receiving flawed information regarding comments that Mr. Bundy made, during a New York Times newspaper interview. Mr. Bundy's remarks concerned his take on the condition of the American black family. A statement, which in its essence, was accurate.

It is obvious why the leftish New York Times arranged an interview with Mr. Bundy in the first place; they hoped to snare him. And that is what they did by posting a maliciously edited version of his conversation. Mr. Bundy is a simple rancher and was in no way able to discern the sinister motives of a leftist interviewer. Hannity and so-called conservatives should have at least been suspicious of the Times before pouncing on Cliven Bundy.

This kind of behavior on the part of proclaimed non-racist whites is as troubling to me as the out-and-out racial hatred of an Aryan Nations member or a "skinhead." Genuine racists do not attempt to appease anybody; they believe what they believe and never mind what people think of them. Genuine conservatives should be as true to their convictions. When conservatives are so fearful of a charge of racism that they fail to reason, they make themselves look petty and shallow, and do not garner respect from anybody. Clear thinking may require taking an unpopular stand for the right of fair play. Donald Sterling did not commit a crime and his offensive remarks were about not to somebody. That, in my mind, falls under free speech.

It is unlikely that Cliven Bundy or Donald Sterling is truly racist. They just happen to be white men in a sick, twisted, racialist American culture, compliments of the first post-racial President.

My advice to Mr. Sterling would be that first, he get rid of the adulteress and make amends with his wife. She might be a safer, if not sexier, alternative. And second, he should consider hiring the best lawyers he can find to bring a legal case for infringement against his civil rights. Even foolish old men deserve protection from the mob.

With every infraction against principles of freedom, as stated in America's founding documents (freedom of speech being among the most paramount), we move closer and closer to something akin to Nazi Germany. And we know how that nation fared.

* For those unaware, Simon Legree is the arch villain of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel about slavery, by author Harriet Beecher Stowe. We read such books in school when I was a kid. It did not in any way stifle us; rather it broadened our perspectives. I thank God that there was no political correctness back then.

© Sylvia Thompson