I recently saw a revival of the great line that came out of the movie, Forest Gump. \u201cStupid is as stupid does.\u201d The phrase can be a bit of a word game, but however one interprets it, the meaning certainly applies to the choice words about race uttered by Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 owner Donald Sterling.<\/p>\n

Among Sterling\u2019s pearls was what he said in an authenticated recording<\/a> with his one-time girlfriend, V. Stiviano:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you\u2019re associating with black people. Do you have to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. \u00a0The little I ask you is not to promote it on that \u2026 and not to bring them to my games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t put him [Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me.\u00a0 And don\u2019t bring him to my games.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The term \u201cpiling on\u201d is one that is normally associated with football. It\u2019s illegal, and in the minds of many, immoral, for one or several football players to keep piling on a downed player after the whistle has been blown.<\/p>\n

In the case of Sterling, the basketball owner of notoriety, the piling on has come from virtually everyone who has an opinion, and that is just about everyone. Sterling has repeatedly been called a racist. Well in the words of the great philosopher, Fats Domino, \u201cain\u2019t that a shame.\u201d I mean, really, how much guts does it take to call a doddering old man who is clearly confused about the world in which he is living a name? Suddenly it seems that everyone in the world other than Sterling is \u201cholier than thou.\u201d It\u2019s as if Sterling was the only person in the world to express a racial prejudice.<\/p>\n

One of the other twenty-nine NBA owners who will vote on taking the franchise away from Sterling had the temerity to say, \u201cwait a minute.\u201d Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proffered the thought that Sterling may not be the only racially prejudiced man in the world. In fact, Cuban went so far as to say that none of us, including himself, can honestly say that we are not a racist. He graphically described his perspective:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I see a black kid in a hoodie and it\u2019s late at night, I\u2019m walking to the other side of the street,\u201d he said in a video interview for <\/a>Inc.’s GrowCo Conference in Nashville<\/a>. \u201cAnd if on that side of the street, there\u2019s a guy that has tattoos all over his face \u2014 white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere \u2014 I\u2019m walking back to the other side of the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I\u2019m not perfect,\u201d Cuban also said Wednesday. \u201cWhile we all have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it\u2019s an issue that we have to control, that it\u2019s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it, not just to kick the problem down the road.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It would have been easy for Cuban to just fall in line with the owners, and virtually all other observers. He could have denounced Sterling as a racist and pretended to be it above it all. Instead, he said what he was really thinking; in NBA parlance he \u201cmanned up\u201d and shared his inner thoughts.
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