Remember that foot hanging from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s mouth on Wednesday, when he had his low-scale Donald Sterling moment during an interview shown at the annual GrowCo convention hosted by Inc. magazine?
During the conference in Nashville, on the topic of the banned Los Angeles Clippers owner, Cuban admitted, "I know I'm prejudiced, and I know I'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I'll move to the other side of the street" he said. "If I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoos (on the side he now is on), I'll move back to the other side of the street. None of us have pure thoughts; we all live in glass houses."
While some praised the mogul and Shark Tank star for openly admitting his own prejudices, in my response piece, “Mark Cuban Wants AN NBA Where Racists Can Speak Freely,” I immediately took Cuban to task for his ignorance in referencing a “black kid in a hoodie” as something to automatically be fearful of.
“In light of the Trayvon Martin tragedy – which we are not that far removed from – it baffles me that Cuban would make these types of inflammatory statements filled with an insensitive reference to a "black kid" and a "hoodie." It’s comments like these, and the brainwashing of young black males instilled at a very young age with the idea that they are less than, that limits the opportunities talented young "black kids" are awarded. Some people just don’t get it. Money makes some people feel that they can disparage, degrade and misrepresent whomever they like. Accuracy is not a concern.”
For somebody who didn’t say anything wrong, Cuban sure was backtracking after his comments made its way through the social media circuit. He took to Twitter to apologize to Martin’s family, which was obviously the correct thing to do.
In the fifth and final part of Cuban’s damage control tweet, he cleaned up his previous response to keeping bigotry out of the NBA. During Wednesday’s interview he said, “You don’t (keep it out); there’s no law against stupid. I'm the one guy who says don't force the stupid people to be quiet. I want to know who the morons are."
In his tweet Cuban presented himself as part of the solution.
“We have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it.”
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 22, 2014
The apology is cool. At least someone is looking out for Cuban’s money as he’s loose with his cash and lips these days. Still, Cuban says he stands by the rest of his comments. So does that mean he is still afraid of white males with tattoos? Or just black kids with hooded sweatshirts, not named Trayvon Martin, who got killed by a racist for wearing a hoodie? I’m confused, but then again so is Cuban.
As a black man, I feel a way about those comments. F*ck Cuban’s honesty and his billions. Has he been in a media bubble? Was he trying to take the NBA back another 50 years? The African-American community feels the Trayvon tragedy was based on racial profiling and the devaluing of black youth in America. A shrewd hustler like Money Mark has got to know to stay away from that boiling inferno.
I’ve gotten some interesting feedback from a large group of morons claiming that Cuban didn’t say what I said he spoke. Funny thing is, I quoted him. Then he apologized. So I know I’m not making this stuff up. People read and interpret what they want. Then make it fit into whatever jacked up view of the world they possess. These particular fools show us how far America still has to go before we totally eradicate ridiculous, barrier-forming stereotypes, and deal with people for who they are. And if you think he didn’t say anything offensive, go join the KKK.
I think Cuban got that call from Commissioner Silver. I said that would happen after his comments first surfaced. Because even if Cuban is not prejudiced, it’s way too soon after the Sterling debacle for another NBA owner to start spewing derogatory nonsense about young black kids.
Look, we all love Cuban’s passion and new millennium steez as an owner that’s a bigger celebrity than his players. He’s also the epitome of a fan and player’s owner. He’s worth more than 1000 countries, but rocks Tees, jeans and less-than-immaculate haircuts.
But he needs to just watch his mouth. Having money doesn’t give him license to dump on any group of people. Yeah, some are honest and “real” about their disdain for Blacks, Jews, tattoos, interracial marriage, women and everything else. But it doesn’t make them right.
It’s time for Cuban to go back to sensitivity training because honesty aside, when your truth is obviously distorted and biased and detrimental to one particular race of people, then your truth is a bunch of crap that needs to be eliminated. Nobody wants to rally Al Sharpton and go after the Mavs owner, but this type of lingo can’t be tolerated. Even from a guy like Cuban who's generally liked and firmly against the government controlling people’s finances and free speech. At the end of the day, he's just another owner who doesn't want to set any precedents for relinquishing power.
But am I the only one that realizes the NBA just had a near player revolt because of racially-jaded comments?
That stuff don’t rock. King James already told you.
