Brendan Eich, Prop 8, Mozilla, and the "moral hazard" of his ouster

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If you're waiting for Andrew Sullivan and Doutthat and other writers who defended Eich to come forward you may be waiting a while. But there is some nuance in NBA circles. The first few minutes of this video represent that. Whoever named this video called Mark Cuban Brian Cuban. Not sure why. Anyway... A semi-defender.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also semi-defends.

Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way? Although the impact is similar to Mitt Romney’s comments that were secretly taped, the difference is that Romney was giving a public speech. The making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplice to the crime. We didn’t steal the cake but we’re all gorging ourselves on it.
Make no mistake: Donald Sterling is the villain of this story. But he’s just a handmaiden to the bigger evil. In our quest for social justice, we shouldn’t lose sight that racism is the true enemy. He’s just another jerk with more money than brains.
So, if we’re all going to be outraged, let’s be outraged that we weren’t more outraged when his racism was first evident. Let’s be outraged that private conversations between people in an intimate relationship are recorded and publicly played. Let’s be outraged that whoever did the betraying will probably get a book deal, a sitcom, trade recipes with Hoda and Kathie Lee, and soon appear on Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars.

Wasn't... Sterling also out in public? This wasn't recorded in his HOME, unless I missed something.

But, celebrities complaining about what our country being celebrity-obsessed in culture does to feed that obsession as they make money off that obsession is a major pet peeve of mine. -_-

Worth noting, I would say Kareem is defending more Sterling's right to privacy (in a public space) more than defending his words.

Demosthenes wrote:

Wasn't... Sterling also out in public? This wasn't recorded in his HOME, unless I missed something.

But, celebrities complaining about what our country being celebrity-obsessed in culture does to feed that obsession as they make money off that obsession is a major pet peeve of mine. -_-

This was recorded by someone else on the other end of a phone call.

Sterling has long been known to be a racist, though. If anything, something should have been done when he was being sued for refusing to rent apartments to African Americans. And honestly that press conference with Mark Cuban (or Brian, if you're the poster of that YouTube video) is really fascinating. He shares pretty much the fear that I do. That you say something stupid one time and because everything is recorded and collected these days it costs you your job or worse.

Cuban makes the point, though, that there's a difference between actions and thoughts and in that he kind of turns me around to see the perspective many here hold. That there's a difference between Eich believing something and *doing* something.

Demosthenes wrote:

...but at this point, I'm mostly baffled that the NBA hasn't tried to out him earlier than this.

The NBA league is controlled entirely by the owners. They aren't going to rush to set a precedent for kicking out one of their fellow owners for fear the same tactic could be used against them someday.

It's the same reason why China always votes against any UN Security Council resolution that castigates a government cracking down on internal dissent.

Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine weighs in on the tapes.

...they go together like... man and splaining...

Sterling was just banned for life and fined 2.5 million. Not sure if he has to sell the clippers or not.

My guess is that if he doesn't, there will be some more protests from the players, possible walk-outs.

Not really sure what to think of this. It is no shock to anyone who was aware of this guy beforehand that he said horribly racist things. So it really feels like the NBA is saying, "We're okay with racists if you don't get caught," which is a really difficult position to be for or against. Because on one hand, you can't force people out for being suspected racists, but on the other hand I really feel like Sterling still didn't "do" anything that should result in a lifetime suspension. And hell, his public actions paint him a different way, since he was the recipient of an NAACP lifetime award. I'm not saying that such a thing should shield him from all accusations of racism forever it just contributes to the murky, "well what did he do that's actionable?" situation.

So, a fine? Probably. Some sort of action had to be taken, or the organization would seem like it was uncaring about a serious issue. But I'm just having trouble agreeing with this overall. In the end analysis, though, the business has the right to request of its employees and participants that they represent the business in a certain light. Sterling betrayed that... but way, way, way long time ago already.

I'm not saying nothing should happen but the whole thing just makes me make a Ruxin face.

jigoku wrote:

Sterling was just banned for life and fined 2.5 million. Not sure if he has to sell the clippers or not.

Not technically. He can sign checks and cash checks, but otherwise it sounds like he can't be involved with the day-to-day operations of the team. For all intents and purposes he lost the team. He gets to own it like someone gets to own non-voting stock is what it sounds like.

Bloo Driver wrote:

Not really sure what to think of this. It is no shock to anyone who was aware of this guy beforehand that he said horribly racist things. So it really feels like the NBA is saying, "We're okay with racists if you don't get caught," which is a really difficult position to be for or against. Because on one hand, you can't force people out for being suspected racists, but on the other hand I really feel like Sterling still didn't "do" anything that should result in a lifetime suspension. And hell, his public actions paint him a different way, since he was the recipient of an NAACP lifetime award. I'm not saying that such a thing should shield him from all accusations of racism forever it just contributes to the murky, "well what did he do that's actionable?" situation.

So, a fine? Probably. Some sort of action had to be taken, or the organization would seem like it was uncaring about a serious issue. But I'm just having trouble agreeing with this overall. In the end analysis, though, the business has the right to request of its employees and participants that they represent the business in a certain light. Sterling betrayed that... but way, way, way long time ago already.

I don't really follow the NBA, but reading up it sounds like you're right - that the league knew about Sterling's racism years ago, and are probably overreacting now in an attempt to deflect scrutiny. (And, like you, I'm not thrilled about private conversations being recorded and leaked as a tactic).

I do support the players taking actions (like wearing jerseys inside-out during warmup so the team logo isn't visible) to draw attention to their dissatisfaction with having Sterling at the head of their organization, and expect that sponsors and advertisers will be dropping out of their relationships with the Clippers, which will I'd guess will probably be a more effective incentive for Sterling to sell than the NBA's ban.

Given his litigious past, I don't expect Sterling to go quietly into that good night.

Maybe I'm a filthy skimmer but, did you all know Donald Sterling was the 2009 winner of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award and was about to win a second NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award in May. (not sure how that works, did he die and come back for a second lifetime?)

I believe Kareem Abdul Jabbar mentioned that in his recent article on why this is such a bad situation all around.

Nomad wrote:

Maybe I'm a filthy skimmer but, did you all know Donald Sterling was the 2009 winner of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award and was about to win a second NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award in May. (not sure how that works, did he die and come back for a second lifetime?)

Interesting too in reading about how they did so almost automatically due to his donations. I... really would have thought there would be more to getting a Lifetime Achievement Award.

I would make a joke about how one of us is likely to spring the trap of speech versus actions and where money falls into that... but I'm gonna take the House Atreides viewpoint and go in full well in trying to evade it.

Sterling's donations clearly did not mean much of anything as he was giving to the NAACP for some time before reaching the settlement in his suits concerning discrimination in his housing ventures. If I was especially cynical, I would say he was donating to the NAACP in the hopes that a lifetime achievement award (or 15-20 years of donations) would show just how NOT racist he was... when that clearly was still the case. As it stands, I suspect the donation was mostly for the sake of making donations for tax purposes and merely followed a laundry list of organizations that would be questioned in tax forms.

Eich, meanwhile, has never denied that he would make that donation again to support a discriminatory piece of legislation that demonized a sizable portion of the state.

Nomad wrote:

Maybe I'm a filthy skimmer but, did you all know Donald Sterling was the 2009 winner of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award and was about to win a second NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award in May. (not sure how that works, did he die and come back for a second lifetime?)

You are. I did. I even posted about it.

y u no read D:

Bloo Driver wrote:
Nomad wrote:

Maybe I'm a filthy skimmer but, did you all know Donald Sterling was the 2009 winner of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award and was about to win a second NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award in May. (not sure how that works, did he die and come back for a second lifetime?)

You are. I did. I even posted about it.

y u no read D:

Morbo forgot how to read his teleprompter, he forget the letter that looks like a little man with a hat on his head.

EDIT: Not meant to be insulting or condescending to you at all, Nomad. It's just anytime someone ever makes a joke about forgetting to read, this joke will always pop into my head.

Demosthenes wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:
Nomad wrote:

Maybe I'm a filthy skimmer but, did you all know Donald Sterling was the 2009 winner of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award and was about to win a second NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award in May. (not sure how that works, did he die and come back for a second lifetime?)

You are. I did. I even posted about it.

y u no read D:

Morbo forgot how to read his teleprompter, he forget the letter that looks like a little man with a hat on his head.

EDIT: Not meant to be insulting or condescending to you at all, Nomad. It's just anytime someone ever makes a joke about forgetting to read, this joke will always pop into my head.

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