Working with remarkable speed and efficiency, but perhaps with more limited wisdom, the NBA is fining Donald Sterling $2.5 million, barring him from further contact with his team, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that he would “do everything in (his) power” to force Sterling to sell the Clippers. Really?
Don’t get me wrong, Sterling said some pretty gross and hurtful things, and I believe in consequences. I am just not so sure about these.? Here’s why:
1. What leverage is there for a guy to pay a fine when he already knows that he is being thrown out of the community which is fining him? The logic of fining, especially when the money doesn’t go to the person who is harmed, is to encourage the offender to think more carefully the next time they find themselves in the same position. For Sterling though, there will, apparently, be no next time.
2. Why bar him from all further contact with the team? Is it because of what he actually did, or because of what he said in an otherwise private conversation? As Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, remarked, “What Donald said was wrong. It was abhorrent. There’s no place for racism in the NBA, any business I’m associated with, and I don’t want to be associated with people who have that position. But at the same time that’s a decision I make. I think you’ve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It’s a very, very slippery slope.”
To be clear, I have no fear of slippery slopes, but banishment is a serious response, and I can’t help but wonder what this one is really going to accomplish.? If it is to spare his players the possible indignity of working for and enriching a racist, perhaps the league should offer to step in and release them from their contracts.
3. Since nobody in the know was surprised by the fact of Sterling’s racism, I can’t help but wonder about how much of this punishment is about offering up a human sacrifice as a way of avoiding dealing with a whole raft of race-related issues that exist between owners and players, sports and minorities, successful athletes and the communities in which they were raised, etc.
So yeah, bring on the consequences, but let’s not pretend that that no matter how much bathwater we throw out with Donald Sterling, the baby known as racism will really have been addressed.
Be sure to also read Brad’s article, Donald Sterling, Cliven Bundy and the Truth about Racism.?
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”
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