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NAACP rescinds plans to honor LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling following racist rant
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has dropped their plans to honor Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in light of alleged racist comments.
“Let me make it clear, the NAACP will not be honoring Mr. Sterling at the upcoming Los Angeles branch event and we have strongly urged our Los Angeles unit to take the necessary steps to rescind the previous award they bestowed on him,” said NAACP Interim President and CEO Lorraine C. Miller.
The L.A. NAACP branch office had planned to honor Sterling with a “humanitarian of the year” award at its gala 100th Anniversary Dinner on May 15.
The announcement comes after audio recording obtained by TMZ alleged that Sterling urged his girlfriend not to bring black people to Clippers games or to post photos of herself with black friends on her Instagram account.
“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you are associating with black people. Do you have to?” the man believed to be Sterling says during an argument on April 9. He continues, “You can sleep with black people. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.”
One of those now-deleted photos is believed to have been of the woman, V. Stiviano, posing with Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
The scandal has rapidly engulfed the National Basketball Association (NBA) and spurred a firestorm of reaction from U.S. President Barack Obama, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and Clippers president Andy Roeser.
On Saturday, Johnson called upon the NBA to “come down hard” on Sterling and to essentially oust him from the league. “I had a friendship with him. So for him to then make these comments, or alleged comments, about myself as well as other African Americans and minorities, there’s no place in our society for it,” Johnson said on ABC’s playoff pregame show.
“There’s no place in our league, because we all get along. We play with different races of people when you are in sports. That’s what makes sports so beautiful.”
The U.S. president said that Sterling’s comments were “incredibly offensive racist statements”, during a news conference in Malaysia, where he was traveling. “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk,” President Obama said.
The situation has elicited some incredibly sharp comments from players, with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant making no effort to hide their disgust. “I couldn’t play for him,” Bryant wrote on Twitter.
Added former Clippers guard Baron Davis, also in a tweet: “Been going on for a long time.” Basketball legend Michael Jordan also expressed his disgust and outrage over Sterling’s comments. “I’m completely disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views,” he said in a statement released Sunday.
The NBA commissioner is investigating the audio tape and the comments on it and hopes to have things wrapped up in the next few days.
The Clippers team chose not to speak publicly about the scandal and said they were focused on their playoff series with Golden State. On Sunday afternoon, however, the team made a silent protest and let their uniforms become a show of solidarity. They ran out of the tunnel for Game 4 of their first-round playoff at Golden State wearing their warmups. Then they huddled at center court and tossed their warmups to the ground, going through their pregame routine with their red Clippers’ shirts inside out to hide the team’s logo. Players also wore black wristbands or armbands. They all wore black socks with their normal jerseys.
The NAACP plans to address the Sterling controversy at a news conference at Fox Hills Mall scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.
Source: Associated Press