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One good thing about the Obama presidency is that it has completely shattered the myth of a post-racial society in the U.S. Sectors of the country believed (with legitimate optimism) that centuries of white supremacy and institutional racism would be washed away because of a black presidency. Instead, it tore open the scabs on the festering sores of racism in this country. In many ways, the Obama factor has had the opposite effect – bullets flying off the shelves since the 2008 election in preparation for a race war, an increase in white supremacy groups, openly hostile attacks on black...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s confidante V. Stiviano today told ABC’s Barbara Walters that she thinks the embattled NBA basketball owner should apologize for his racist remarks. "Yes. Absolutely,” Stiviano, 31, said when Walters asked her during an exclusive television interview in Los Angeles. "I think he’s highly more traumatized and hurt by the things that he said himself,” she added. “I think he can’t even believe or understand sometimes the thing he says, and I think he’s hurt by it. He’s hurting right now." Asked if she thought he would go through with a public apology, Stiviano replied:...

Shelly Sterling — who distanced herself from her spouse’s hate speech in a statement on Monday — was accused in a 2009 deposition related to a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Sterlings of saying that Latinos were filthy and that she had called one of her husband’s tenants a 'black mother------.'Clippers coach Doc Rivers voiced his support of Donald Sterling’s wife following Sterling’s lifetime ban from the NBA on Tuesday, although it was unclear if Rivers was aware of reports that Shelly Sterling had expressed her own bigotry against blacks and Latinos in court records uncovered this week. “It’s a...

Racism is ugly, no matter who is spewing it. But there does seem to be a double standard when it comes to public outrage on the subject. It was less than a week after LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racist comments to his girlfriend in a private conversation became public that he was banned for life from NBA games and venues, fined $2.5 million, and on the verge of being forced to sell his team. But when a Democratic congressman engages in racist, public name-calling of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the reaction is muted at best. First, let's be...

The current owner of the Clippers, Donald Sterling, is not a very nice man. He has been sued repeatedly for race-based discrimination. He has had to settle those cases. He is married and takes his girlfriend to basketball games, which too many people find acceptable. But what's more, it is pretty apparent his girlfriend goaded Donald Sterling into saying what he said for reasons that still are not necessarily clear. No one should excuse what Donald Sterling said, but it is clear that Sterling's girlfriend spent a lot of time working Sterling up to making his now-infamous comments. In fact,...

The NBA has investigated a person who sent threats to the Washington Wizards and their players during their opening round playoff series against the Chicago Bulls. The Wizards won the series in five games, taking all three games in Chicago in the series. The person under investigation didn't take too kindly to the success of the Wizards, making terrorist threats to the team, according to Marcin Gortat, and threatening the team with bombs and harm to their families.

A secretly taped conversation between long-time L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his then-girlfriend was released. The NBA has now banned Sterling from the league. The commissioner recommends that Sterling sell his team. Goodness, what happened? The old guy had a quarrel with his girlfriend, which she apparently -- surreptitiously -- recorded. The most eye-raising parts have to do with Sterling, 80, telling his less-than-half-his-age girlfriend that he doesn't want her attending games with black people, specifically with Magic Johnson. She can "f--k" anybody, he said, just don't bring "them" to the games. His reasons appear to be that his...

On Tuesday, Adam Silver forcefully announced that his sport would not countenance a hateful racist. He banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the league for life and “will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team.” For Sterling to finally get his comeuppance, to feel the wrath of public opprobrium, and to lose his prime asset seems just. For the NBA, which was engaged in a decades-long battle with its longest-tenured, and worst, owner, this was a perfect opportunity to act swiftly and harshly.

NBA's Donald Sterling Tells Girlfriend, 'In Israel, Blacks Are Treated Like Dogs' Owner Seeks To Justify Racist View of African-Americans Forward.com April 28, 2014 In a newly released audiotape of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s notorious racist remarks to his girlfriend, he seems to justify his views of African-Americans by noting how in Israel “the blacks are just treated like dogs.” In the original, shorter tape released Friday by the TMZ website, which has caused a storm in the United States, Sterling is heard at a game complaining to his black-Mexican girlfriend, V. Stiviano, after seeing that she’d posted...

The president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP resigned Thursday, following scrutiny of his plan to give Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling an award for promoting civil rights. ... Jenkins explained that Sterling had been selected owing to his history of donating to minority charities and giving game tickets to inner-city children. The Donald T. Sterling Charitable Foundation gave $5,000 to the NAACP’s Los Angeles chapter in 2010, according to tax records, and Sterling was listed as his foundation’s only contributor. There were no records of further NAACP contributions in 2011 or 2012, the latest years for...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fully supports Adam Silver’s lifetime ban of Clippers owner Donald Sterling for making racist comments to his girlfriend, but he says he also wants whoever is responsible for taping the comments “sent to prison.” Writing in a strongly-worded editorial peace for Time magazine, Abdul-Jabbar spoke out against the methods used to obtain evidence. "Shouldn't we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media?” Abdul-Jabbar wrote in Time. "Didn't we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen's privacy in such an un-American way?"

If Mrs. Sterling has any intention of attending more playoff games—much less holding on to the team—she needs to explain her role in her husband’s effort to push out minority tenants.If Rochelle Sterling wants her family to retain ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, she better first prove she was not complicit in her husband’s effort to drive black and Latino tenants from the apartment buildings he owns. As has been widely reported, one of Donald Sterling’s former property supervisors testified in a 2003 housing discrimination suit that when she remarked on an odor at a newly acquired building, her...

Usually on The Lookout I share my views on at least five stories concerning Black folks in the media but this week, all anybody is talking about is Donald Sterling — the hopefully soon-to-be former owner of the L.A. Clippers. So, I figured, my column this week had to focus on what we should really ‘Lookout’ for in Sterling’s comments. As you know NBA commissioner Adam Silver threw the book at the longest tenured owner in franchise history Tuesday following TMZ’s release of a racist recording where — like a modern-day plantation owner — Sterling can be heard talking about...

Could Sterling look to treating the sale as an involuntary conversion under Section 1033 of the tax code?  Basically the code section allows in cases where property is compulsorily or involuntarily converted  – the owner can have nonrecognition of gain if he/she purchases replacement property (assuming of equal value).  The owner has basically two years after the close of the tax year in which the gain was made to buy replacement property. Translation – Sterling could seek to claim that his property (ownership of the Clippers) was compulsorily or involuntarily converted (being forced to sell it by the NBA) under...

I really should say something about outrage-fest that has mostly concluded over in the NBA and its environs. Clippers owner Donald Sterling got himself banned from NBA games and practices for life, and was fined 2.5 million dollars, because he managed to insinuate himself onto some audio, the playing of which audio proved to the world that he was in fact a racist jerk, not to mention a bounder and cad. It is difficult to summon up any sympathy for that kind of guy, and so why bother? No sympathy at all, at least not from this quarter. The fact...

...Stiviano “never wanted any harm to Donald,” Siamak Nehoray told the Los Angeles Times. Somebody released it “for money,” but it wasn’t Stiviano, the attorney said. “My client is devastated that this got out,” he said. Nehoray previously said the recording posted online was a snippet of a conversation lasting roughly an hour.... Stiviano has been described as Sterling’s girlfriend. In March, Sterling’s wife, Rochelle, sued Stiviano, seeking the return of more than $2.5 million in lavish gifts the woman allegedly received from her husband, including luxury cars and a $1.8 million duplex. The lawsuit claims Stiviano, 31, met Sterling,...

Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather have revealed they are interested in buying the LA Clippers after current owner Donald Sterling was fined £1.5m and banned for life by the NBA for making racist comments. Sterling was caught on tape telling his girlfriend he did not want her to bring black friends to Clippers games - prompting protests from his own players and condemnation from President Barack Obama. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said: "The views expressed by Mr Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful. That they came from an NBA owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage....

CARSON CITY, Nev.Donald Sterling can’t watch his players on the court in California -- and now he can't play in Nevada. A day after he was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling also got the boot from the infamous Bunny Ranch brothel outside Carson City, Nevada. The owner of the legal brothel, Dennis Hof, also announced that Sterling is banned from entering any of his six other brothels in the state. "A lot of NBA players come here to party," Hof told the Huffington Post. "Out of respect to them,...

** NOTE: Some quoted language below may offend readers.** I had listened to roughly eight hours of commentary on Donald Sterling and the ugly remarks he made in conversations secretly tape-recorded by his girlfriend, before I heard anyone mention a wife. HE HAS A WIFE? At first, I thought the topic must have changed when I left the room, but no -- the TV talking heads were still discussing Sterling advising his girlfriend to stay away from blacks. Not only does Sterling have a wife of 50 years, but earlier this year, she sued his girlfriend, demanding the return of...

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling reiterated to Fox News Wednesday that the team "is not for sale," likely signaling a looming legal battle with the NBA should his fellow owners try to force a sale over Sterling's racist remarks.