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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKareem Abdul-Jabbar rebuts Maher: Donald Sterling’s age is no excuse for his racism
By Arturo Garcia
Saturday, May 3, 2014 0:39 EDT
Basketball hall-of-famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar poked a hole in a rhetorical question Real Time host Bill Maher has brought up regarding racism as a generational issue during an interview regarding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Friday.
Do you cut any slack to anybody whos 80 and a racist? Maher asked. You hear this a lot: Well, hes old. The same thing you hear about, Well, our founding fathers, that was the era they lived in. Do you think thats an excuse, or [that] we should stop using it as an excuse?
I dont think we can use that as an excuse, Abdul-Jabbar said. His 80 years include the 1936 Olympics, Joe Lewis versus [Max] Schmeling, Jackie Robinson, the integration of the NBA.
Maher did not mention that, in the past, he asked a similar question while defending Paula Deen last year over her own use of racist terms. At the time, Maher said, the slur ni**er was just a word. Its a wrong word. She was wrong to use it. But do we always have to make people go away?
On Friday, Maher also seemed to question the character of Sterlings reported girlfriend, V. Stiviano. Stiviano has denied being responsible for leaking the recording of Sterling asking her not to associate with Black men at his teams games.
She says there was not a sexual relationship, or any sort of romantic relationship, and yet she took four cars and an expensive apartment [from Sterling], Maher said. I feel that makes her worse than a whore. A whore, thats an honest transaction.
Abdul-Jabbar politely declined to follow Mahers lead, saying he did not know enough about Stivianos relationship with Sterling to comment. However, in an April 28 column for Time magazine, the former Los Angeles Lakers great said people should be outraged that whoever did leak the recording will probably get a book deal, a sitcom, trade recipes with Hoda and Kathie Lee, and soon appear on Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing with the Stars.
At the same time, Maher and Abdul-Jabbar found common ground in criticizing what they have described as a feeling of self-congratulation permeating the popular condemnation of Sterlings remarks years after he was taken to court for his discriminatory business practices against Blacks and Latinos.
For over 10 years, weve known about his antics, and some of the things that hes done Abdul-Jabbar said. Hes done some pretty horrible things to people having nothing to do with race.
Watch the discussion, as posted online on Friday, below.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/03/kareem-abdul-jabbar-rebuts-maher-donald-sterlings-age-is-no-excuse-for-his-racism/
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Posted with permission
Baitball Blogger
(46,775 posts)Last edited Sat May 3, 2014, 05:26 PM - Edit history (2)
in their households.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)dionysus
(26,467 posts)"African American" because they're not up on modern terminology; there's no malice there. you don't cut an old person slack for being an outright racist, because even back then people knew racism was wrong.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)So how would we possibly expect him to remember the 1960s? Or the 70s? Or the 80s? Or the 90s? Or the 00s? Heck, we're not even half way through the teens! Cut him a little slack, huh? It's only been 50 years for Sterling to undo the bigotry he learned so well.
Maybe Maher's getting too old.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)Going with the obvious answer doesn't always make for interesting conversation.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)And I don't think the audience that finds it interesting is one worth catering to.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)The author or whomever is reading into this article more than what's there is desperate to spin something out of absolutely nothing. Maher was pretty clearly being sarcastic. I'd suggest someone that unable to detect snark stop watching the show, or their gonna be aggrieved quite a bit.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)That's why Abdul-Jabbar pulls no punches on this. He remembers.
Maher's libertarian edge is really apparent in segments like that one.
Cha
(297,885 posts)come up with Nothing.