I can\’t say that Mark Cuban, internet gazillionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is my favorite guy.
But I do admire the guts it took for him to say what he did about Donald Sterling…..because he is taking holy hell for it, even though, in my opinion, he is getting it right.
Excerpted from Lisa Maria Garza\’s article for Reuters:
OutspokenDallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban fended off social media criticismon Thursday for his “bigoted” response when asked at abusiness conference to address the controversy over banned LosAngeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
“IfI see a black kid in a hoodie and it\’s late at night, I\’m walking tothe other side of the street. And if on that side of the street,there\’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face – white guy, baldhead, tattoos everywhere – I\’m walking back to the other side ofthe street,” he said in the interview that was posted on theInternet.
Criticssaid his “hoodie” reference recalled the 2012 shooting ofunarmed, black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, who was wearing ahooded sweatshirt when he was fatally wounded in a struggle with aman who said he feared for his life.Cuban defended his views onTwitter, saying that his quotes were not meant to advocate racism.
“Thepoint was that before we can help others deal w racism we have to behonest about ourselves,” Cuban wrote in a tweet.
Ok, let\’s think about this.
First off, can someone explain to me how Cuban\’s comment can be racist, given that he cited both a Black and a White person he would cross the street to avoid? Maybe I\’m just a bit obtuse, but it seems like a pretty hard sell to me….unless you\’re arguing that he is a racist for leaving out Asians and American Indians, I suppose.
Next, lets look at his examples: Cuban didn\’t say just any Black guy and any White guy, he specified a Black kid in a hoodie and a White skinhead with tattoos all over him (who, it should be noted, scared him more than the Black kid). Cuban brought up two caricatures of people who, statistically, would be disproportionately likely to engage in violent criminal activity.
With this in mind, let\’s test Cuban\’s premise with a different premise; one that has nothing to do with race at all. Let\’s erase the skin color, hairline and tattoos. Ok, they\’re gone.
Now, suppose you knew that people who wore red and white striped shirts were far more likely to commit violent crimes than people who did not. If you were walking down the street late at night and saw a guy with a red and white striped shirt, would you be worried about it? Would you try to avoid that person? Of course you would.
The commonality here is that, although you don\’t know the specific person in question, and he might be perfectly harmless, the probability is dramatically higher that he might be trouble. So you try to avoid the issue by avoiding the person. Just as you would with Cuban\’s two examples.
How is this racist? The answer is that it is not. It is just plain common sense.
I hope the NBA doesn\’t try to bounce Mark Cuban out of the organization for daring to say it.
