Culture & Société

BY EMMANUEL ROY: The problem is really not what DONALD STERLING had to say

DONALD STERLING: "BLACK PEOPLE ARE VERMIN... AND LAZY"

BY EMMANUEL ROY: LOS ANGELES, CA - Donald Sterling is the billionaire owner of the Clippers, an NBA team. Last Sunday, a voice recording of Mr. Sterling surfaced where Mr. Sterling was heard making racist comments about African-Americans. These comments were made during a private telephone conversation between Sterling and a third party. However, following an investigation by the NBA (National Basketball Association), Mr. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA decided to ban Mr. Sterling from the NBA for life; fined him $2.5 million dollars; and called for the sell of the Clippers.

Twitter, Facebook, Instangram and other social media have been buzzing with comments applauding Mr. Silver's decision as "great", "a show of leadership" "a tough and appropriate punishment", "no place for racists in the NBA", "Mr. Sterling should not own an NBA Team."

No one will dispute that Mr. Sterling is a racist, a despicable human being who does not deserve to breath the same air as us. He has a long story of making derogatory statements about Blacks, Hispanics and Jews. Mr. Sterling is a slumlord who does not believe that Black and Hispanics deserve adequate shelter. He refers to blacks as "vermin". So, I am not defending Mr. Sterling. However, what have we achieved by banning him from the NBA? fined him $2.5 million dollars? or force him to sell the Clippers? It seems to me that Mr. Sterling is mentally ill, and probably needs serious help, including a serious dose of education.

It is very dangerous to believe that the way to protect us against harmful speech is to ban the speaker of such speech or make it expensive for him to express his opinions. What Mr. Sterling said, was said in private, and as racist, arrogant and ill-informed his opinions are, they are his opinions, and he has a right to express them. To sanction him for his opinions, in my opinion is very un-American. The way to counter hateful speech is not to punish the speaker but to respond with more appropriate speech. What if Magic Johnson were to say " Crackers cannot play ball"? Will we ban him from the NBA too? Where do we stop?

There is no absolute right to free speech. The government has placed limitations on many different form and type of speech, but normally those limitations are there to prevent immediate and irreversible harms to the public or to the people to whom the hateful speech is directed. Mr. Sterling's racist rants "I don't want black people coming to my game, don't bring them... I provide those black people with money, cars and shelters... they are lazy and vermin..." while regrettable, do not rise to the level of immediate and irreversible harms to anyone. The problem is really not what Mr. Sterling had to say, it is the undeniable truth that too many white people routinely make these racist comments in private, or fail to educate their children and family members who make racist comments about non-white. In fact, Mr. Silver himself have probably made private racist comments about black people.

We have no place in our society for bigots, and as intolerable as Sterling's remarks are, policing them is not the best policy. People have to be able to express their opinions whether we like the opinions or not. The way to combat prejudice and racism is not to fine or ban people, but to educate them. My experience with racism is that most people who believe that non-white are inferior to white have not had the opportunity to learn about those "non-whites". Lets combat ignorance, not policing speech. Today it might be a racist speech, but tomorrow might be a religious speech. Tolerance does not only require us to promote good speech it also requires us tolerate speech we do not like by educating the speaker.

Emmanuel Roy
is a Freelance Writer
Follow him on Twitter
@EJRManny
Photo:http://fabwags.com

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