"I made a terrible, terrible mistake..."

Why the hell is this guy groveling?

Stand up for yourself, you idiot. You didn't make a mistake, you were secretly and illegally recorded. Your private words were published, out of context, and turned into a media circus. Your privacy was violated.

Sterling ought to be pissed, and anyway, the best defense is a good offense.

Standing up for his privacy probably doesn't fit his strategy in the slightest.

I agree w a_random_guy.

Serling will be dead long before the court case forcing him to sell settles if he fights this.

I'd like to see him go down in flames and take everyone he can with him

>>Do you know any nursery school teacher who would take this out on a child

Not personally, but the news is full of asshole teachers who might do such a thing.

I kind of am a racist. I try had to rise above it, and not let the stereotypes in my brain get in the way of getting to know someone as they are, as opposed to how I assume they are. But sad to say, I do make assumptions. I think I'm pretty good at looking at the individual in spite of my biases though.

It is so ingrained in our society, it is hard to even recognize it when it happens. Not the blatant Donald Sterling stuff, but the more-subtle stuff that is at the top of that slippery slope.

I know that I, like NicholeK, turn on my spidey-senses when I am near a black person, especially a black man. Not that I am concerned about crime, at all. I am concerned that I may say or do something inadvertently, that offends. It feels very similar to how I feel when I am driving and a police car comes up behind me. I am sure I'm not doing anything wrong, but my blood pressure still goes up and all my senses go on alert. Just in case.

This short interview describes it quite well (from a successful black man's perspective, but it bookends my personal experience.) He describes the difficulty of resolving this, with a great deal of understanding.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/19/cummings-i-cross-the-street-when-white-women-walk-toward-me/

At the end, is story about a "boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar". It sounds like such polite political rhetoric. But then you wonder... I think I would have said without thinking, "a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar". That's the top of the slippery slope. Or is it? I never know when I'm going to slip up, or whether something even is a slip-up.

@NicoleK: You are honest and self-aware. It is a natural human tendency to group and categorize. Unfortunately, most people seem to be unaware of their own, innate tendencies. I expect that the most racist people are those who are unaware that this is how their minds work.

This sounds all over the place. His wife's statement that he has dementia is sounding more plausible.

From Avenue Q: "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist"...

You can see it on Youtube.

Regarding the need to remember not to do little rudenesses as well as big ones - see this not so old thread:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/27/kobe_bryant_arg.html

Here's another behavior I heard of - white parents tightening their grip on their kids' hands when walking down the street and passing someone of another color, thus teaching kids racism in a flash. Not to mention all those white adults WITHOUT kids who clutch any bags they're carrying, with both hands, without even trying to be discreet about it.

(Incredibly, one 46-year-old white Republican I know who's pretty bitter about affirmative action, etc, was surprised when I told him about that - it was a white behavior he'd never HEARD of! He'd also never heard of black people being suspected first when something gets stolen. Amazing.)

Not sure what the problem is. He's part of the 1%, those to whom we give thanks for our jobs and the health of our economy.

Stop the wealth envy!

Can someone explain something to me that I have never understood.

Racists that fuck women of the the race they hate. I get closeted homos that do this (fuck other homos secretly and then go on an anti gay rampage) because they are self hating BUT I don't get guys like this.

I just don't get people who fuck people they hate, or think are below them . I'd never fuck a guy that wears tight shirts ya know ?

Ppen, I think you actually nailed it in your second paragraph -- it's self-hatred. That's what drives them to racism in the first place; it's a way of trying to make themselves feel more adequate by convincing themselves that they belong to a group that is superior. People do different things with self-hatred. Some turn it inward, some project it onto others.

Just want to pop in and say that he was neither secretly or illegally recorded. He hired V to record him because at his age, his mind is slipping. He has admitted that he was completely aware of the recording. It was, however, illegally distributed.

Cousin Dave/Ppen - I owe y'all one for reminding me of a Kris Kristofferson song I used to sing a lot 30+ years ago.

Egg Head's cousin Red Neck's cussin' hippies for their hair.
Others laugh at straights who laugh at freaks who laugh at squares.
Some folks hate the whites who hate the blacks who hate the clan.
Most of us hate anything that we don't understand.

'Cos everybody's got to have somebody to look down on.
Who they can feel better than at anytime they please.
Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on.
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me.