Illiterate USA Today Writer Expounds on Possible Racism by Clippers Owner Donald Sterling
TMZ has a clip of possibly racist comments by a person who most people appear to assume is Clippers owner Donald Sterling. I’ll leave it to the rest of the world to furiously debate whether the comments are actually racist, or taken out of context, or worse than things said by Spike Lee or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, or whatever. Sorry, I have just gotten bored by that kind of thing. This post is only tangentially about that (although I expect the discussion in the comments will be all about that, which is fine). What I want to know is this: if you’re hired as a sports writer for USA Today, do they not require that you be fluent in the English language? Here is their story about the incident:
In an audio obtained by TMZ and posted on its web site, the person said it bothers him that she posted photos of herself with black people on her Instagram account. After a recent Clippers game, the woman took a picture with Johnson.
“Don’t put him on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. … And don’t bring him to my games, OK?” the person said on the audio recording.
“Yeah, it bothers me a lot that you want to promo, broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” person also said.
Here’s more about whether “person” made these remarks “in an audio” obtained by TMZ:
Johnson responded on twitter Saturday: “LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s comments about African Americans are a black eye for the NBA.”
If I logged onto Twitter (yes, it’s capitalized, USA Today editors), I might ask Magic Johnson why it has to be a black eye. Seems kind of racist to me. But there I go, getting distracted from my main point: the illiteracy of the writer and his editors. Let’s get back to that, shall we?
Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson has called for the Clippers to boycott, while other prominent African Americans have taken strong stances against Sterling’s comments as well. Well-known rap artist Snoop Dogg posted a profanity-laced video on his Instagram account condemning Sterling.
In March, Sterling’s wife, Rochelle, filed a lawsuit alleging the woman, identified as V. Stiviano, had an affair with her husband, according to Los Angeles’ CBS affiliate reported in March.
I think it’s wonderful that Jesse Jackson now has a capitalized title: Civil Rights Leader. Is this perhaps some new “race czar” position that was announced by Obama while I was hibernating? Anyway, editors, could y’all re-read that last paragraph, slowly and out loud? And after you do that, read this one:
The league might have to consider that Sterling was speaking privately and quite likely did not know was being recorded.
Well, if you insert an unnecessary word or two in one sentence, you just have to take out a necessary word in another, and that way it all balances out.
Sorry, I know this post is silly and trivial, but as I read this article I just noticed one goof-up after another, and I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, y’all need a post to discuss the all-important Latest Racial Outrage (capital letters intentional!). So here you go!
P.S. It probably is worth pointing out, in light of pieces like this one that suggest that all public racists are Republicans, that Sterling has a record of monetarily supporting Democrat candidates like Gray Davis and Bill Bradley.