Donald Sterling has spent the week being figuratively pummeled, disgraced, humiliated, scoffed, derided, shamed, dishonored, tarred, feathered, and run out of town. Or at least out of the NBA.
Said NBA has also put forth a not so polite request for the Los Angeles Clippers owner to pony up $2.5 million dollars for what he was clandestinely recorded saying by his supposed “mistress”.
But not everyone in the media has jumped aboard the Donald Sterling is the worst human being to ever walk the earth “ban” wagon.
In fact, Larry Elder, who hosts an afternoon drive show on KABC 790 in Los Angeles, told TMZ , Donald Sterling is getting “SCREWED” by the NBA, and that it’s actually Magic Johnson who blew the whole Sterling-is-a-racist thing out of proportion.
The African American libertarian, author, and radio personality , Elder, acknowledges Donald Sterling is a “dolt” and that Sterling has long said stupid and racist things, but that the current outcry against Sterling is that of “black and white victicrats” and those in the “racism industry” are making the most of Donald Sterling’s idiocy.
Elder has long railed against the likes of Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee and many other outspoken liberal personalities, generally winning any debate against anyone willing to take him on. Both Bill Maher and Michael Moore choose not to.
Appearing on Fox 11 in L.A. on Tuesday, TMZ says Elder defended Donald Sterling, arguing that the only reason Sterling was taking so much heat is because Magic didn’t keep his cool after the audio was released:
“Magic Johnson could have taken this thing to a nice high level… and he could’ve said, ‘I don’t care what Donald Sterling says,’” Elder said.
What TMZ leaves out, however, in a very Michael Moore-ish fashion, is that Elder started his comments by saying Magic should have acted more like Larry Bird when Isaiah Thomas said that if Bird was black, he’d just be regarded as just another player. Bird’s response when asked what he thought? “I don’t care what he said.” Which is what Elder thinks Magic should’ve said with regard to Sterling’s comments.
But back to TMZ ‘s version of Elder on Sterling, they say he went on to defend Sterling’s statements: “The worst thing (Sterling) said was ‘Don’t bring your black friends to the games.’ The black friends can go, just don’t have them sit next to you. If Magic wants to go, just don’t have him sit next to you… for that, he loses his team?”
What does TMZ leave out this time? The part where Elder says Sterling was a silly fool who was set up by his mistress who was practically “holding up cue cards” feeding him lines in an effort to get Sterling to say the “n-word” but still couldn’t get him to say it.
In the end, Elder suggests that we all could be set up by our enemies like Sterling was, and experience similar, disastrous results.
In an editorial on Donald Sterling’s downfall , Elder examines others that have made very offensive comments with no repercussions, let alone the beating Sterling has received. Again, one of Elder’s favorite targets, Bill Maher, comes up. Maher is part owner of the New York Mets:
“What about Bill Maher? He is a part-owner of the Mets — that is, when not calling Sarah Palin the “c” word or Michele Bachmann “a dumb t—t,” or when not joking about Palin’s son Trig, who has Down syndrome.” writes Elder. “Should MLB investigate his stand-up for foul language?”
As the Donald Sterling racism event continues to unfold, it will be interesting to see what else Larry Elder has to say, and the skeletons that may lurk in the closets of many other high-profile people.