By Kayla and Chris
About a week ago, TMZ released an audio recording of a man arguing with Venessa Stiviano, about Stiviano posting pictures of herself with black people on Instagram. The man on this audio recording was identified by Stiviano as Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers (Stiviano was Sterlings girlfriend).
In the recording, Sterling made racist comments that offended many people. This isn't the first time Sterling has been accused of racism. In 2009, he agreed to pay 2.73 million dollars to settle allegations because he refused to rent apartments to Hispanics and African Americans. Again in 2011, Sterling was accused of harassment and discrimination but won the a lawsuit.
In response to the release of this recording, many people have expressed their disapproval. was Magic Johnson responded, "Obviously, if the reports are true, it's unacceptable in our league. It doesn't matter white, black, or Hispanic - all across the races it's unacceptable. As the commissioner of our league, they have to make a stand. They have to be very aggressive with it."
President Obama also released a statement, "I don't think I have to interpret those statements for you, they kind of speak for themselves. When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything. You just let them talk... I suspect that the NBA is going to be deeply concerned in resolving this."
In addition to this, the Clippers themselves wore their warm-up jerseys instead without their logo and black socks.
In response the NBA banned Sterling for life and fined him 2.5 million dollars. This was the first true issue that new NBA commissioner, Adam Silver faced and his decision to ban Sterling was met with great approval. In addition, Sterling is also being forced to sell the Clippers. This has been a great step for the NBA, but has also raised a question, would the same thing be done if someone made the same comments about someone being gay?
If you would like to listen to this recording, the link is below.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZh6WGbZUvA
