Donald Sterling – nowhiphop.com
By now, most of us have heard of the controversy over LA Clippers’ Donald Sterling’s racist remarks. And many, if not most of us, have digested the news and the massive media outpouring surrounding it, through our own internalized, somewhat biased and experience-based thought process.
And here we are, a day after NBA’s lifetime ban and financial penalty on Mr. Sterling, picking up the pieces of this unfortunate, yet significant, event, and frankly wondering what to make of it at the end of the day…
I am a firm believer in crisis, even the ones deemed unnecessary and highly unfortunate, as they always tend to teach us something. And throughout this one highly controversial crisis, as a Black woman in Corporate America’s male-dominated, race and gender-biased trenches, I’m looking around and thinking that maybe this crisis was needed after all…
That maybe it will help us uncover some of the harsh stigmas plaguing not only the NBA, but also mainstream Corporate America. Maybe it will help us expose the sad realities around how as minorities, our professional contributions are truly valued. Maybe it will help us all uncover wounds of the past, and a persistent cultural ignorance blocking us all from real progress. And maybe we need to foster both in the NBA and in mainstream Corporate America, a sense of cultural awareness, and a need for cultural intelligence, especially from the tone at the top.
In Corporate America as in the NBA, minorities are still undervalued and misunderstood players. And while we may tend to blame the leaders of our organizations, leagues or teams, we may also want to think about educating them first.
Every crisis is a wake-up call to a deeper, lingering issue to be resolved. And here again, it’s not so much about the offender than it is about the offense itself…
