Adam Silver Flexes Muscles; Time for Players to Black Man-up

By Arelya J. Mitchell, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
The Mid-South Tribune and the Black Information Highway

Adam Silver. Need we say more? This is the power of real leadership. We were in the process of releasing what might border on extreme to some, but when one is caught between tornado warnings and stuck with no electricity, Mother Nature rules even technology.

Perhaps the tornado was symbolic of what was to come.

But never would we have thought the NBA Commissioner would have the guts to do what he did to this billionaire racist a.k.a. Donald Sterling. Silver’s denouncement along with his “personal outrage” called for a rewrite in some instances. We, too, had written that the L.A. Clippers should be taken from Sterling. We didn’t know about the wherefores and therefores of what constituted ownership of an NBA team to be taken away. But that wouldn’t have been our point, because this was not only about sports but the politics of sports. And in politics, there is the power of ‘force’ just like a tornado which doesn’t care about your bank account or what you own. Silver’s NBA Lifetime Ban should dovetail nicely with Sterling’s NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award. Maybe he can use them as book ends.

In contrast to Silver, one saw a further weakened NAACP, especially when the L.A. NAACP president sat at a press conference on Tuesday before Silver’s denouncement and said that there “was room for forgiveness” for Sterling. Would someone tell this Black ‘boy’ that there is a profound difference between being a fool and a Christian? Today’s NAACP has already become a semi-joke in the Black community because everyone knows that a white can buy such awards as the Lifetime Achievement with the purchase of an annual banquet table and a cockroach in a glass jar. After which, quite miraculously the white perpetrators are forgiven of their sins! They’ve seen the light! Glory Hallelujah! Praise de Lawd! Everybody knows that you can promise the Black community everything and deliver nothing. Furthermore, you can go back and keep doing this. If you don’t believe this, ask worshippers of the Church of the Democratic Party as they bow before the Golden Donkey while the Elephant stomps on them.
The Jewish community says, “Never again.” The Black community says, “There’s room for forgiveness.” And we wonder why there’s a crisis in Black leadership, especially in Black economic leadership (which is nil)?

It’s time to Black man-up.

Now that Silver has stated that it is his intention to force Sterling to sell the L.A. Clippers, Blacks should back him with action. A Black group should take ownership. If Sterling fights it legally, so what? Declare war and Black man-up. Get your Black lawyers and go after him in court. That’s what Black lawyers did during the Civil Rights Movement. In this ‘war’, one flank (group) should be ready to take on the owners. Get ready to march (and this is where marching can be effective) at stadiums and if that means taking up funds to pay—or rather ‘employ’ out-of-work people to keep that line strong and going, then do it. There’s nothing unethical about that seeing that white plantation owners got poor whites to take their place during the Civil War. A second flank should consist of a group of Blacks to march on the sidewalks (public property) in these owners’ upstanding zillionaire neighborhoods and at their places of business. This should include Sterling’s neighborhood and his place(s) of business. To reiterate, there should be a specific group formed to get this done. Since Sterling declared ‘war’ on Black people and Black Jews he should be made an example of just as Blacks have historically been made examples of with worse such as with lynching, castration, slavery, and Jim Crow. Sterling would be getting off easy considering he has not had to suffer these!

This group should next head for the NFL. Goal: Black ownership of some NFL teams. About a year or two ago, Advertising Age had an article in which there was speculation that the NFL would be expanding in China. You can bet your bottom dollar Black ownership is nowhere on the agenda, but worse yet, you can bet that same bottom dollar Blacks are not looking at these expansion efforts of the NFL and NBA into Europe, Africa, and China or Mars for that matter. They’re too busy being employees rather than employers when the community needs both! Sit your Black ass down with your strawberry drink and pull your straw chair up to the table. Don’t ask. Just do it. Make demands. You don’t have to be rich to demand to be treated like a Black human being, and you don’t have to be rich to win the economic war. This is the reason why most monarchies don’t have power.

It has been the Black players who have fed white owners, clothed white owners, kept white owners in limousines, gave white owners fatter bank accounts. We don’t see any white owners out there making baskets. We don’t see them running up and down the floor bringing in crowds. We don’t see any white owners as white Magic Johnsons, white LeBron Jameses, or white Michael Jordans. White owners need to realize this is a two-way street. This should be about mutual capitalism. And mutual respect.

Also, what is interesting to note in Sterling’s tirade is the fact that he brought in a dialogue on ‘white Jews’ and “Black Jews”. He said that even ‘white Jews’ don’t want Black Jews in Israel. What makes this situation even sadder is that Sterling is of Jewish heritage, and of all people he should know better. He probably changed his name (unlike Blacks who cannot change their skin color) from Donald Tokowitz to Donald Sterling because he was discriminated against because of his Jewish roots. Has he been ‘passing’ as an American WASP as much as he could get away with? Changing his name might have been one way of Donald Tokowitz sneaking into the country club.

We wonder what the Anti-Defamation League has to say about Sterling’s assertion in his hatred of ‘Black Jews’? Or of his derision of African Americans, one of the Jewish community’s closest allies? Many Black soldiers helped to free Jews from Hitler’s Holocaust only to come home to live under the Jim Crow Holocaust. So where is the Jewish community on this matter?
We don’t see the Hispanic community coming out on this matter. Where are the women groups? We don’t see any Oriental Americans coming out? We don’t see the Gay community coming out (pun not intended)? We don’t see groups who advocate for the Disabled or Seniors coming out? All these groups benefited from the 1964 Black Civil Rights Movement. Ironically, it has been the advertising community which has acted as a quasi-civil rights group by pulling ads (money!). How strange is that?

Most of these little ethnic leeches have sucked the blood out of Black skin and gotten what they wanted, and Blacks have often found themselves in the same position as God (no blaspheme intended) that other ethnic groups don’t come to them unless they’re the ones in trouble. (And that includes the Democratic Party).

To the Black community, stop giving away the store. Get off de-fense! It’s time for a proud Zulu Warrior spirit to emerge. Force Donald Sterling to sell. By any means necessary. If that sounds radical, then it is no more radical than the Civil Rights Movement itself! Than King and Malcolm X! Ironically, it is no more radical than when the federal government aided and abetted white-owned banks in stealing Black farmland.

Like his alleged mistress or not, it took a woman to take down Sterling; just as it took Rosa Parks to stand her ground.

It’s time to Black man-up.

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