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| 81 year old Sterling and his mistress, V. Stiviano |
Normally I would not comment on racist remarks by the owner of a basketball team. There are a lot of racists in the world and I don’t need to condemn the obvious.
But when that owner is Jewish, my ears perk up. When anyone Jewish does anything disgusting, it reflects on all of us. And thus has the potential to be a Chilul HaShem!
I have no tolerance for racism of any kind. And certainly no Jew should. Even a Jew that is not religious. I think it is safe to say that Donald Sterling is not religious. Nor does he seem to have any religious values. Nevertheless any Jew who knows even a smidgen about the Holocaust should understand what racism is.
The fact is that he is a Jew by birth. He cannot get out of that no matter how much he tries. And try he did. First by adding the name Sterling to his family name of Tokowitz.
He then went a step further by naming one of his children Chris. (What a great name for a Jew.) Chris is short for Christopher - a derivation of the Greek term meaning "bearing Christ" or carrying Christ in your heart.
That this 81 year old married man has a girlfriend young enough to be his granddaughter just adds to his lack of any sense of propriety.
Last week he made racist comments that were recorded. He was unaware of that and has since denied that he is in any way racist. (Sure! And I am Henry the 8th).
Sterling, who owns the LA Clippers told his girlfriend the following. From the LA Times:
"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people," Sterling allegedly says, later adding, "I'm just saying, in your … Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with, walking with black people.
"Don't put him on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."
I guess he thinks his billions makes him immune to criticism. But billions cannot buy honor. It cannot buy integrity. And it cannot buy respectability. This fellow… with all his billions is a disgusting individual. He ought to be condemned by all good people. If I could throw him out of Judaism, I would… Not that it would bother him. He’d probably consider that a prize!
Cool to be Jewish? Not this guy! That may be the only mitigating factor about this Chilul HaShem. That he in no way represents anything Jewish.