Mogul Mark Cuban commented on the Donald Sterling situation, and his plain-talking style has the Dallas Mavericks owner at the center of controversy once again.
Before we get into Mark Cuban’s latest comments, let us first mention that he once totally linked to The Inquisitr after his kidney stone livetweet sesh:
Its finally over. It was 5mm and it was special. – Mark Cuban Livetweets Kidney Stone Ordeal http://t.co/M1NIqh3E via @theinquisitr
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) December 20, 2012
Now that that’s out of the way, what did Cuban say that’s got everyone so het up?
Apparently, someone asked the Shark Tank star about his feelings on the situation with Sterling, the Clippers, and public reaction to the comments initially made by the team’s owner.
In a recent interview , Cuban admitted that he — and all of us — are internally vulnerable to prejudices, even if we put on a perfect public face in that regard.
Discussing how he handled such impulses as a team owner and manager, Cuban said:
“If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking back to the other side of the street.”
However, Mark Cuban says it’s a constant battle to ensure such base feelings don’t color his managerial relationships. The Dallas owner realizes that the predisposition isn’t always a positive thing, and that working on it and being aware of his own prejudices is half the battle:
“I know that I’m not perfect… While we all have our prejudices and bigotries, 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, not just to kick the problem down the road.”
In today’s hyper-sensitive, outrage first and ask questions later culture, it would be easy to jump all over Cuban for what he said. After all, he totally admits to being prejudiced, right?
But in context, it seems that he’s being far more honest and realistic on the subject of race, racism, and overall societal disparity than people who pretend these things don’t exist if we just fire the person in the hot seat and move on.
Do you think Mark Cuban’s racism commentary is more on point than the recent conversation about Sterling and the Clippers?