Sunday, April 27, 2014

American society is racist through and through

Spare me the faux outrage over Donald Sterling.

All the usual equality entrepreneurs like Al Sharpton are weighing in on the issue.

Fact is, 150 years after emancipation, white folks go to college while niggers go to jail.

Which is not to denigrate the achievements of those black folks who get to college, or to the NBA. But if one thing is true in America today, it is this; no matter how steep the climb from nothing to middle class "respectability", it's twice as steep for black folks.

So a white fat-cat makes some untoward remarks about black people, and everybody acts like this is some sort of deviation from a civilized norm. It isn't. It's merely a deviation from the norm that we don't talk about our systemic racism in public.

The NBA has produced more black multi-millionaires than any other business venture in American history. Maybe the NFL or MLB gives them a run for their money...  Let's celebrate that, but as we do, let's remember that's the exception.

The unmitigated stupidity of Sterling's remarks put paid to the concept of meritocracy. As far as I can tell, his Clippers are entirely dependent for their success on the black folks both in the stands and on the court.

As a not-too-bright white fat-cat, Donald Sterling may be biting the hand that feeds him, but what his racist ruminations reveal is nothing out of the ordinary in contemporary America.


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