Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, is under criticism for alleged racist comments.
Orin StarnProfessor and chair, Cultural Anthropology, Duke Universityostarn@duke.eduhttp://bit.ly/ihXK66
Starn is a Duke University anthropologist who studies the intersection of sports and popular culture.
Quote:"The uproar over L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling is just the latest rerun of a very familiar American racial drama. A famous figure gets caught saying something racist; we have national outrage; calls for sanctions and punishment; the apology from the humiliated and supposedly contrite offender...and then back to business as usual."
"For all the progress we've made as a society, one has only to look at the NBA playoffs -- where Sterling's Clippers are competing for the crown -- to see just how much race still marks everyday life. The players are mostly black and the fans, the ones with the money to pay outrageous NBA ticket prices, are overwhelmingly white."
"It's all too easy to denounce Donald Sterling. Our divisions go far deeper -- and the problems far more complex -- than just a few stupid remarks by an 80-year-old bigot."