I am still in disbelief at Adam Silver’s announcement that Donald Sterling has been fined $2.5 million and banned from the NBA for life. The red, white and blue NBA logos framing Silver brought the whole sad affair together and styles it as the first days of the French Revolution, 2014 edition. The NBA could at least pay the estate of Phillip K Dick a royalty for bringing to life the world created in The Minority Report.
Robespierre’s rotting carcass and burning soul finally have something to smile about. Let’s hope it takes the Chinese a few months to mold, then sharpen, the blades on the guillotines they must surely be building for the American thought police who, no doubt, are already gearing up for another purge.
What was even more shocking, if that’s possible, was Kevin Johnson’s grave dance afterward. Johnson gloated over Silver’s solomonizing, saying the decision was important because “sports provides a place for fundamental change on how our country should think and act.” Secretly recorded, private conversations revealing Sterling’s knuckleheaded opinion about who his adulteress should be taking Instagram pics with, are the source of fundamental change.
Never mind that nary a soul is morally outraged over Sterling’s adultery, nobody counsels “zero tolerance” for breaking God’s sixth and ninth commandments. There is no concern for the adulteress’s NSA-like abridging of her sugar daddy’s privacy and trust. Why not? Well, there is an aged, wealthy, white guy to be pilloried here, to the gallows, men! We have reached an era in which Catholics cannot run tech companies — see Brendan Eich — and bigots cannot own sports franchises. Religious belief precludes the former and racism the latter.
But back to Hizzoner, Mayor Kevin Johnson. After the Obamaesque “fundamental change” part of his sermon, he then went on to establish the new rules we’re all expected to live by. “This is also a statement about where we are as a country. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional basketball player worth millions of dollars or a man or woman who works hard for their family. There will be zero tolerance for institutional racism, no matter how rich or powerful.” Since history shows us that the ‘zero tolerance’ crowd is in fact rather selective about their tolerance, let’s explore what we are currently assured will NOT be on the zero tolerance list: racism when directed at white people, and the bigotry of hedonistic pagans toward Christians.
Exactly six years ago this week, Barack Obama publicly spoke out against his former pastor of 20 years, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright had been embroiled in a simmering controversy over recorded sermons where he thundered “no no no, not God Bless America; God d–n America!” In a 2008 press conference discussing the issue, Wright doubled down on his vitriol, condemning the U.S government for inventing the HIV virus “as a means of genocide” against African Americans. In his “denouncement” of Wright, Obama said “And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing.”
That’s precisely what they were. The president never bothered to address Wright’s “genocide” charge, nor did he address Wright’s “sermons” where he quoted the Black Liberation theologian James Cone. Cone’s view of white people is expressed in his works published since the 1960’s, here’s a small sample from 1990’s A Black Theology of Liberation, used by Wright. “If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of a God who participates in the destruction of the white enemy.”
Obama sat in the pews and absorbed this violent racism for 20 years, but after learning of Sterling’s racist remarks while in Malaysia, Obama sounded the alarm bells. “[W]e constantly have to be on guard on racial attitudes that divide us rather than embracing our diversity as a strength.” Evidently his “zero tolerance” threshold used by Johnson and Obama, is a one-way street. But Obama’s complicity on the Sterling exorcism and complicity with Wright is not a solo act. Also joining the fray is 2008 Obama endorser Oprah Winfrey, telling CBS This Morning on Tuesday that Sterling had a “plantation mentality in the 21st century” and that “[s]omething has to be done … like, now,” about it.
Winfrey also attended Wright’s church until her popularity on TV began to rise. Then, according to sources quoted in a Newsweek story, Winfrey bailed on Wright because “[s]he’s always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn’t be smart.” In other words, Wright’s repugnant use of the pulpit to cry for violence against white Americans didn’t rise to the Oprah threshold of “[s]omething has to be done [about it]…like, now.” Surely a universal policy of “zero tolerance” for any act of racism would have sent Oprah, post-Wright sermon, to a screening of “Steel Magnolias” with a warning of imminent danger! No, the talk-show diva would hold her fire until the prospect of owning an NBA franchise required it.
A mere two days after demanding that “something be done about Sperlin, like now” Winfrey admitted she was hot after Sperling’s most prized possession: ownership of the L.A. Clippers. Through her spokesperson Winfrey beamed. “Oprah Winfrey is in discussions with David Geffen and Larry Ellison to make a bid for the Los Angeles Clippers should the team become available.” Mirabile dictu! The team has become available, thanks in part to Oprah’s celebrity being loudly added to the mob’s roar for Sperling’s head. Is this not what a hostile takeover looks like?
Geffen told ESPN Tuesday that Winfrey “thinks it would be a great thing for an important black American to own a franchise.” But as NBA Commish Adam Silver explained, “As you know, we have an African-American primary owner in the league right now. Shaquille O’Neal just became a small owner of the Sacramento Kings. David Robinson is an owner of the San Antonio Spurs. Vivek Ranadive, a person of color born in Mumbai, India, just became the primary owner of the Sacramento Kings. So I believe we have a very diverse league, but I’d always like to see it become more diverse.”
On PBS Newshour Tuesday evening, Grantland’s Charles Pierce demands that Silver carry the diversity torch and pitchforks to Orlando and show “zero tolerance” toward the DeVos family that owns the Orlando Magic: “What does Adam Silver do now, for example, with the DeVos family in Orlando, which funds anti-gay candidates and anti-gay issue ads all over the country, as well as owning the Orlando Magic? Does he talk to them? This is an entirely new world. And if we’re going to step into it, let’s step all the way into it.” Why on earth would Pierce advise this course?
So here’s what’s really going on here: groups of opinionated people pronounce others unworthy of owning something, and then, with the help of a media that lathers the allegedly “offended” into a frenzy, seize the property by any means necessary and anoint new owners who are worthy.
Some are saying, ‘this is how the free market settles discrimination without government getting involved.’ They must explain the permanent subsidy at least 15 of 29 NBA franchises operate under, and the tax-financed palaces they play in. This despite the fact that economists now reject, 85-15 the sanity of subsidies for pro sports franchises. The government is involved at every level of the ongoing scam that is professional sports, why would they want to crash their own party?
Mike Church is a New Orleans native and a radio host appearing daily on the SiriusXM Patriot Channel. He is an author and editor of “Patrick Henry-American Statesman” and is the writer and director of 7 Docudramas on American history including “The Spirit of ‘76” and the recently released “Times That try Men’s Souls-Washington’s Crossing.”
