**Bob Marley’s “War” (with lyrics and music only)
http://youtu.be/H2rdKn-KnXI
**Bob’s “War” with a little history lesson thrown in re. Ethiopian Emperor Haille SelasieI. This video ends somewhat abruptly but it is otherwise so good that I didn’t even waste time looking for a different version which didn’t finish so unexpectedly.
Sterling, pictured here with his then-girlfriend, the woman who recorded and made public the infamous audio; the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team, stands accused and apparently convicted of being a racist fool.
“You can do what you want (with them)”, Sterling allegedly tells his then-girlfriend, the youngish woman who actually looks like she’s less than half his age. “You can bring them up (here). You can sleep with them. I’m just asking you not to bring them to my games.”
By the way, that girl friend, Ms. V. Stiviano, 38, comes off smelling like roses on the audio but it’s she who made the tape. On the other hand, Sterling comes off smelling like manure but like President Obama has said in a widely shown clip (of the President in Asia) when ignorance speaks, there’s no reason to do anything. Just let them talk. In other words, let them kill themselves.
Sterling also takes exception on the tape to a photo of Stiviano taken with another attractive woman and LA Laker legend and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, Magic Johnson. Sterling apparently is heard taking exception to the publication, by Stiviano of that pic on her Instagram.
In response to this situation Sterling says: (and here I am paraphrasing but using quotation marks as well as a means of ensuring that his actual words are being repeated, maybe not in sequence, though) … “Why do you have to promote the fact that you spend time with Black people?” And he continues with … “Do what you want … in private … Why do you have to publicise (it).”
I have quoted extensively from the contents of the tape released on the weekend to exhibit the abhorrent nature of Sterling’s character as both demonstrated and reflected by what he says on this and a previous tape. (No question that the voice in both of the aforementioned tapes is not Sterling’s according to Silver.) Further Magic has gone on record as declaring that Sterling should give up ownership of the team and that he, that is Johnson, will not go to another Clippers’ game as long as Sterling continues to own the team.
Michael Jordan, also an ex-basketball super super star and present owner of Washington’s NBA team has said that there’s no room in basketball, or in the world as a whole for that matter, for racists like Donald Sterling.
Just horrible. Totally disgusting. I find myself incredulous and somewhat pissed about the fact that apparently Sterling has a track record, historically, with these types of things, going back more than a few years and yet no action was taken to get him back in line before Commissioner Adam Silver lowered the boom on Sterling Tuesday afternoon, slapping him with a lifetime ban from the NBA and fining him a pittance – a measly $2,7 million – but more on that later.
Until yesterday, was this guy ever put on notice by Stern or by the other owners, in any official or even quasi-official capacity? Absolutely. NOT. Was he sanctioned in any way? Was he even spoken to on the record? Was anything done at all? Another three “no’s”.
Note the vanity plate … Who or what is V, or does the letter represent lunch at the Junction Restaurant. Don’t know. Wouldn’t put it past a dirty old man to do something like that.
Why no action was taken until Tuesday is fundamentally incomprehensible to me even given Silver’s statement in answer to a scribe’s question that whenever the NBA got reports in its office in the past alleging inappropriate and/or offensive behaviour, the commissioner’s office (read his predecessor, David Stern) followed the situation but the present commissioner, Silver, said nothing about the NBA contemplating taking action – let alone actually doing anything – about the allegations like, for instance, oh, I don’t know, conducting some sort of freaking investigation. For. Christ. Sake.
It is absolutely incredible and slightly nauseating that Sterling has been able to get off scot-free for more two decades and still counting … right until Tuesday, that is, when Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner finally cutt loose.
Sterling’s Track Record as a Confirmed Racist is evidenced by the following incident:
** $2,7 million payment made by Sterling in the 1990’s I believe this was, to settle a suit against him undertaken by the U.S. Justice Department. The suit was pursuant to Sterling’s discriminatory practices in his rental policies; he apparently refused to rent to African-Americans, whom he describes on tape, as being “unclean, of smelling bad. We have to get them out of here”, he (if it is him and personally, I believe it is)[1] is clearly heard saying.
[1] I had never heard of this racist Sterling, the octogenarian, billionaire owner of the Clippers, a California franchise, part of the National Basketball Association (N.B.A.) before last Saturday when the story broke. So there’s no way that I would know his voice. That being said, Kareem Abdul Jabbar who knows Sterling quite well authenticated the weekend tape “… (It) sounds like him … ” and the voice on the earlier tape re. African American renters sounds exactly like that on the tape which has just surfaced, the one that Kareem authenticated on TV Monday.
Plus Sterling has remained silent. He hasn’t yet denied anything; nor has he taken responsibility, apologized and announced his intention to seek help. If he had done that, or at least some semblance of that, he may have been able to avoid some of the punishment both his name and his social situation have taken globally since Sunday. What I am saying is that I may have found a grain of respect, a soupçon of pity for the guy if he had somehow gotten in front of it right away, even while knowing that to change someone in his 80’s is next to impossible.
Sterling’s track also includes – quelle surprise! – law suits for racial discrimination in his hiring practices. Elgin Baylor, another basketball superstar in the past and who once worked for Sterling, successfully sued his ex-boss for wrongful termination.
More than a dozen sponsors have either suspended or completely cancelled their sponsorship of the Clippers since this latest tape has gone viral.
The guy’s a jerk and should give up his ownership of the team as well as his place in the spotlight, and quietly just go away.
Peace. Out. Totally.