04/19/24
March 01, 2011
Much like George W. Bush, Donald Sterling likes black people: In honor of Black History Month, Donald Sterling will admit 1,000 "underprivileged" kids and their parents in free for a Clippers-Rockets game on Wednesday, MARCH 2, 2011
posted by Demophon to basketball at 08:28 AM - 15 comments
I always loved what Morgan Freeman said about Black History Month. (It's on YouTube somewhere.)
posted by Drood at 02:59 PM on March 01, 2011
Yeah, I read about that in that scathing column written by that reporter. It was hilarious. (It's on the internet somewhere.)
posted by Ufez Jones at 04:40 PM on March 01, 2011
The old adage "no good deed goes unpunished" seems like it fits here.
Sure it is a cheap publicity stunt and I am not sure how you make the connection between black and underprivileged, but then I guess you cannot politically correctly offer free tickets to black people only.
Maybe this promotion would have been better in "help the underprivileged month as opposed to Black History month as I do not associate poverty with color. I say poverty because I don't get the term underprivileged, everybody has the same privileges, just not everybody has enough money to exercise them.
posted by Atheist at 06:16 PM on March 01, 2011
Underprivileged kid must be accompanied by parent or guardian who apparently must buy a ticket, so it's really buy one get one free. I'm sure there are a lot of privileged adults out there who want to pay for a ticket and drag their underprivileged kids along for free.
Reminds me of a national restaurant chain I know of which loved to pass out free meal coupons to kids. Kids were so excited to get the freebie that they would drag their parents to the restaurant, who of course would have to order and pay for their own meal.
posted by graymatters at 11:57 PM on March 01, 2011
Sure it is a cheap publicity stunt and I am not sure how you make the connection between black and underprivileged,
Maybe because the poster in the linked article says "BLACK HISTORY MONTH" right on it. But don't let that stop your agenda. Or the fact the poster says . . . no, screw it, here:
See if you can figure it out for yourself.
posted by yerfatma at 08:49 AM on March 02, 2011
This has to be one of the worst publicity ads in history. Must use the same PR firm as the Dallas Cowboys to be splashing the owner's mug on it.
posted by graymatters at 10:29 AM on March 02, 2011
Wow, I never realized how much Blake Griffin looks like ARod...poor kid...
posted by MeatSaber at 12:31 PM on March 02, 2011
When I said I am not sure how you make the connection, I was referring to the Clippers making the connection which I found offensive. So let me clarify,
Underprivileged means poor, poor does not mean black. The connection is offensive to me as I imagine it is to most. Of course if you wanted to honor black history month by admitting black people for free that might be a problem also. Bad idea from the start and terrible execution. Were their hearts in the right place I sincerely doubt it. How could an NBA team honor black history month? Most team owners would be too smart to touch that with a 10 foot pole.
Here is a good suggestion, free with every ticket an interesting book or dvd of notable events in black history. Naw that would actually cost the team money and actually honor black history.
posted by Atheist at 01:10 PM on March 02, 2011
Underprivileged means poor, poor does not mean black. The connection is offensive to me as I imagine it is to most.
I don't see any offense in that. Black people are disproportionately poor.
Why would honoring black history month be a problem for an NBA team?
posted by bperk at 02:10 PM on March 02, 2011
I think the problem is that they couldn't be bothered to honor Black History Month during, you know, Black History Month...
posted by MeatSaber at 03:23 PM on March 02, 2011
"I don't see any offense in that. Black people are disproportionately poor."
Well are you giving free tickets to all people who prove they are underprivileged regardless of color by checking their tax returns, or are you going to be giving free tickets to black people just because they are black and blacks are disproportionately poorer than whites therefore based on color they get the tickets, or do you also ask for proof of poorness? The offense is relating the whole exercise to black history month which basically is non related. I thought the entire point of the post was that is was an offensive way to promote or honor black history month as the implication was we are giving a bunch of poor black kids free tickets because we are so caring as a team. "Why would honoring black history month be a problem for an NBA team? "
I isn't if they actually did something related to black history that honored it in some way as I suggested as opposed to running a ticket promotion as transparent as this.
I do apologize as my first post did not really read the way I meant it to.
posted by Atheist at 05:53 PM on March 02, 2011
Well are you giving free tickets to all people who prove they are underprivileged regardless of color by checking their tax returns, or are you going to be giving free tickets to black people just because they are black
This is another easy one: they most likely hand them out in places like Boys & Girls clubs in rough parts of town, just like the Red Sox have their Dunkin' Dugout and the Celtics have some Dunkin' Donuts-related nosebleed section. It's not like it's tough to find 1,000 poor kids in a city.
posted by yerfatma at 08:54 AM on March 03, 2011
"This is another easy one: they most likely hand them out in places like Boys & Girls clubs in rough parts of town, just like the Red Sox have their Dunkin' Dugout and the Celtics have some Dunkin' Donuts-related nosebleed section. It's not like it's tough to find 1,000 poor kids in a city."
Precisely my point, what does giving free tickets have to do with black history? Unless of course "rough parts of town" is just a euphemism for a poor black neighborhood, or project, or ghetto etc...it's the black history referral that makes this disturbingly transparent and inappropriate.
Actually the poster says the tickets are available at the lobby of Staples center so they are not going anywhere to give them away which gets back to my original thought. Who do they give the tickets to, anybody that shows up, or only those who can prove they are underprivileged, or anybody that is black because after all this as black history month? I just don't understand how it works without offense.
posted by Atheist at 12:42 PM on March 03, 2011
If you are trying to make sense of how someone like Sterling would want to celebrate black history, then you are really out of luck. That's pretty much the point of the post.
posted by bperk at 01:09 PM on March 03, 2011
If even he did get the month right, no one would buy this gesture. His record on racial issues is pretty clear.