WHEN MADNESS TURNS TO INSANITY

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Donald Sterling

I’m sure, even if you are not a sports fan, or one of basketball in particular, heard the racist remarks of Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

If you go through life and have not met a racist yourself, you are living under a rock, and racism is not confined to just one race or another, if is prevalent in all of us. However part of the beauty of living life is appreciating it, understanding what racism does, what it means and how to divest yourself of ignorance and misconception.

Having been in the business field for years, I learned early on that the more money and respect you get from success, seems to isolate you and make you more withdrawn from the good ordinary everyday people. Because of that success, you start to think that whatever you think, whatever you take to the table, must be right! This thinking covers your taste, your lifestyle and your politics, and all the backward prejudice to carried as a younger person.

Who will feed his children?

One of the best movies I have seen on racial prejudice, and what it does to the human spirit, comes from the movies 42, about Jackie Robinson. That one particular and touching scene, where he is abused because of his color, he explodes in the runway from the dugout to the clubhouse, his bat pounding the walls and floor of racism, of unjustifiable hatred and the anger and tears of hundreds of years of unfounded hate. It should be a tool in the humanity of teaching children, early on, and should be placed on the shelf of x-rated books of historical significance along with the Holocaust.

Have you ever looked at a small baby and because of its innocence, wonder what the world holds in store for the child? And that black baby, just as innocent, what crime has it already committed that a prejudice has already been built in to keep it down, preventing he/she from achieving happiness? That little Hispanic child, as innocent as the black or white baby, what crime does he/she commit?

Supporters of racism

I grew up in the midst of racism, I witnessed it first hand as a child in my neighborhood, from both the whites and blacks, and it angers me that it did exist, that my life was robbed of the friendships I could have had.

What really opened my eyes about racial prejudice was not the issue of black and white: it was the issue of homosexuality! I had hired a young man once, many years ago that happened to be gay. I had no idea and the guy was a hard working and reliable studio artist that got the work done for me. I grew to like him as an individual and when I found out he was gay, my instinct was to protect that fact. There were racists that exited in my office and they would not be kind or accepting of him! I realized that being gay was still being human, that therefore, being black or white was still being human. How do I justify behaving like an ignoramus? When did one race or another assume the roll of proprietor of the Earth, racism attracts racism, makes us all haters and racists, makes us all act like animals.

We as people justify our hate. We create myths about others, and we sell it to our children as fact, and soon we believe it too. But the biggest shame we as humans commit, the biggest crime is that we rob ourselves of potential healers, teachers, thinkers, friends and most of all we rob our right to call ourselves human when we practice the evil art of prejudice.

Sorry for preaching, maybe you know this already, but I am angry with Donald Sterling. Maybe he should have read more about the Holocaust and less on money making.