“When people show you who they are believe them.” –Maya Angelou
In 2009, former LA Clippers GM Elgin Baylor filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against team owner Donald Sterling claiming in a deposition in the late 1990s Sterling rejected black coaching candidate, Jim Brewer, based on race, he recalls him saying, “Personally, I would like to have a white southern coach coaching poor black players. And he [Sterling] looked at me and said, ‘Do you think that’s a racist statement?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. That’s plantation mentality.'”
Incomprehensibly, Sterling, 80, was honored by the Los Angeles NAACP with a Life Achievement Award that same year for obviously being what the historical organization deemed a community stalwart. Just prior to that, Sterling was sued by the black renters in his West Side Los Angeles high rises for discriminatory practices. Sterling reportedly tried to later tidy up his image and started taking photos with black people. Imagine that. He even bought space in the L.A. Times to showcase photographs of black residents who rented from him and later invited black community leaders to parties for photo ops. Shamefully, the black leaders obliged, sold out and smiled for the camera.
Sterling’s racist demons have reared their ugly heads again with his former “charity worker” V. Stiviano (his voluntary Sally Hemings) leaking inflammatory recordings of Sterling, a shutterbug who’s been spotted in photos with LaLa Anthony and Chris Tucker, who we hope had no idea they were hobnobbing with an outed racist.
In a press conference today, following reports the same NAACP Chapter in Los Angeles, had plans to honor Sterling this May, the L.A. branch president Leon Jenkins addresses the fact Sterling has made an unspecified donation to branch over the course of the past 15 to years. “It’s an insignificant amount of money, and we’re going to return it.”
So much for us aspiring to have a “Sterling reputation.”
