Posted on 09/08/2014 1:23:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sure, there are assumptions he makes that are cringe-worthy—but the questions about how to attract more white fans were entirely reasonable.
Well, the pitchforks are already sharpened and the torches lit anyway, so rather than let them go to waste why not drag another so-called racist before the Court of Public Opinion and see how much ratings-grabbing, head-shaking, race-shaming we can squeeze out of it. After all, the media got so much gleeful, hand-wringing mileage out of Don Sterling and Michael Brown.
The only problem is that Atlanta Hawks controlling owner Bruce Levenson is no Donald Sterling. Nor is his email racist. In fact, his worst crime is misguided white guilt.
I read Levenson’s email. Here’s what I concluded: Levenson is a businessman asking reasonable questions about how to put customers in seats. In the email, addressed to Hawks President Danny Ferry, Levenson wonders whether (according to his observations) the emphasis on hip-hop and gospel music, the fact that the cheerleaders are black, the bars are filled with 90 percent blacks, kiss-cams focus on black fans, and timeout contestants are always black has an effect on keeping away white fans.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
LOL
Isn't all 'White Guilt' misguided?
Kareem gets it.
By the way, Kareem isn’t a genius. Most sentient human beings (which doesn’t include about 95% of the mainstream media) could see through Levenson’s actions after a few minutes of reflection.
“I’m a racist, I just discovered that...so I better sell. Where is my billion?”
Kudos to Kareem for seeing the trees in the forest.
Back when he was with the Milwaukee Bucks, I owned a very few shares of Milwaukee Bucks stock. I used to tell people I owned Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but not in the sense that everyone today would take it.
And, although he sometimes acts objective and intelligent, Kareem definitely has a race chip on his shoulder from time to time.
Don’t worry the idiot and evil white libs will have this guy as a KKK supreme leader by the end of the week.
If someone who worked for me wrote that email, they’d be fired. He wants to get rid of paying customers for customers who might never come? I’m a white male, but if he thinks all white males ball up into the fetal position and call for mommy whenever they see a black man, why bother? Are they going to have pacifier giveaway night or on-call lactation consultants to attract these “male” customers. If you have a y chromosome, why waste it?
I agree with the general thrust of Kareem's weekly column far more often than not.
Kareem gets the business part. What he doesn’t get is that Levenson saw what white liberal guiltest Ballmer paid for the Clippers and Levenson wants some of that!
RE: If someone who worked for me wrote that email, they’d be fired.
Well, who can fire the OWNER of the business?
Only the franchisers can do it... in this case — the NBA.
Oh, it’s so bad to want to attract a wider audience, and one that may spend more money?
That’s very short sighted.
Anyone who reads the guy’s memo sees it was a completely sincere analysis without an ounce of “racism”. If you can’t want to to include whites, then I certainly have no interest in the NBA.
Time to stop thinking that everything which values white people is “racist”.
RE: What he doesn’t get is that Levenson saw what white liberal guiltest Ballmer paid for the Clippers and Levenson wants some of that!
If that’s what Levenson is thinking, then I think he’s making a very bad bet. There are only so many billionaires like Ballmer who are willing to spend their money to acquire sports teams going around.
Besides, Ballmer is acquiring a WINNING TEAM in the Clippers.
The Atlanta Hawks on the other hand, are a so-so team. Who’s going to part their with their billions acquiring a team like that?
But then, there might be some billionaire who’s tired of owning too much money.... But I can’t think of any other than Ballmer.
Can you?
more gems from Lew Alcindor.
But they didn’t fire him - he fired himself. I’m just saying it’s a stupid email.
excellent article!
RE: stupid email.
It might be stupid, but I don’t think it’s racist ( not towards blacks it isn’t ).
RE: more gems from Lew Alcindor.
Does he take kindly to being called that?
Muhammad Ali gets mad when they call him Cassius Clay...
Wanting to attract a wider audience is understandable. Blaming you ACTUAL paying customers is STUPID. Show me one business-owning Freeper who would do that. This guy has zero understanding of business.
Amen. You don't put things like that into an email or memo.
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