At Home with Donald Sterling

Now that every preening pundit has stood up in their various pulpits to denounce Donald Sterling, praise Adam Silver and look to Magic Johnson as a Mr. Clean, albeit a bit diseased, the lull has taken over and the race hustlers like Sharpton and Jackson have moved on to the next flim-flam. Thus do we have a quiet moment to look somewhat dispassionately at the event in its totality and what its lasting effect might be. Sterling was inside his plantation with one of his personal, female assistants whose name escapes me for the moment and whose relationship to Sterling is irrelevant. They were talking; no other person was in the cirle of their conversation. Except, of course, as all now know, the friend was taping the conversation. Sterling was unaware of the taping which thus constitutes a criminal act for which she could be prosecuted. At some point subsequent, she intentionally and with an unknown purpose, released the tape recording to the media and the rest is some kind of cultural history. The pilloring and punishment imposed upon Sterling are more than substantial. Whether such are deserved does not appear to be reasonable when the actual facts are examined. Sterling's words are clearly protected speech in terms of the First Amendment of the federal Constitution. They were not criminal conduct. He was not shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater, inciting riot or slandering someone. He was having a supposedly private conversation with a trusted friend of some time whose name I do now recall. Judas, I think, or something similar. Clearly, his words were not for publication but published they were, surreptitiously at best. It is also clear that the general sentiments Sterling holds are held by millions of Americans. Ask Obama, Holder, Jackson, Sharpton, Sotomayor and other race-bating hustlers, each of whom decries that racism in America is alive and widespread. Each of them, by the way, like Sterling, lives in a lily-white neighborhood. None lives in Harlem, Detroit or South Central. Every person with the means to do so avoids living in places like Harlem, Detroit or South Central. Supreme Court Justices, elected officials and newsroom savants all think diversity is a wonderful, broadening experience for university students but, sadly, it has no beneficial effect on the street or neighborhood where they have chosen to live. It is also a no-brainer to state that Adam Silver does not live in Detroit, Harlem or South Central or any neighborhood closely resembling them. His home is also in a lily-white area and his kids attended elite academies. He sent none to any school offering the richness of diversity to be found in a classroom chockful of poor kids from the local ghetto. You can bet the farm on that. He's Jewish, not stupid. He would never condemn his children to the fruits of the diversity tree. So what is Sterling really being punished for? He is being shunned and excommunicated for a private conversation, uttered inside his own home, manifesting in words that which his betters manifest by the way they live their lives. More, his words were made known only through the criminal conduct of his single listener who is apparently a friend or more of a person who is likely to benefit from Sterling's banishment. The preeners may paint themselves an inch thick with self-adulation but, if allowed to succeed, to this favor shall we all eventually come. None may laugh at that.