As you of course know, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is attempting to dump Los Angeles Clippers owner donald sterling from the organization for making racist comments, in a private conversation, about “Blacks” (no, he did not use the “n” word).
As readers of this blog know, Larry Johnson, the former NBA star who is now an executive with the New York Knickerbockers (Knicks) tweeted that he would like to see an all-Black basketball league – i.e. no Whites need apply – a comment which a) is more egregious than what sterling said, b) was made to the world, not in private and c) was made after the sterling tapes became public knowledge. To this moment, however, no punishment of any kind has been meted out to him. No one is demanding he be fired…or suspended, or fined or even told “bad boy, don\’t do that again” and sent to bed without cookies.
I could stop right here, and the NBA\’s blatant racial double standard would be obvious. But there is more.
Please read the following ( and be warned about heavy use of profanity and racism):
You\’re now tuned intothe motherfucking greatest
Turn the music up in the headphones
Tim, you can go and brush your shoulder off nigga
I got you, yeahIf you feeling like a pimpnigga, go and brush your shoulders off
Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off
Niggas is crazy baby, don\’t forget that boy told you
Get, that, dirt off your shoulderI probably owe it to you all, proud to be locked by the force
Trying to hustle some things, that go with the Porsche
Feeling no remorse, feeling like my hand was forced
Middle finger to the law, nigga griping my balls
All the ladies they love me, from the bleachers they screaming
All the ballers is bouncing they like the way I be leaning
All the rappers be hating, off the track that I\’m making
But all the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it
Came from the bottom the bottom, to the “Top of the Pops”
Nigga London, Japan and I\’m straight off the block
Like a running back, get it man, I\’m straight off the block
I can run it back nigga \’cause I\’m straight with the Roc
Not very nice, is it? Wildly, disgustingly racist, wouldn\’t you say?
Well those are the “lyrics” of a song called “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”, by Shawn Corey Carter, better known as rapper Jay-Z.
Jay-Z is a part owner of the NBA\’s Brooklyn Nets. And by now I assume you have guessed that no one has demanded he relinquish his ownership position, or apologize, or do a thing.
Racism is odious. It is sickening. It is also an equal opportunity employer: no group has any monopoly on doling it out or being on its receiving end.
People who pretend that some versions of racism are horrific and must be punished to the maximum, while other versions don\’t even count, are, themselves, engaging in the worst kind of racism.
Put another way, welcome to today\’s National Basketball Association.
