Revolution #162, April 19, 2009

From a Reader

Elgin Baylor and Racism in the NBA

"The NBA is the equivalent of a minstrel show in today's society...with the continuation of white supremacy."

— Bob Avakian in his talk, "The NBA: Marketing the Minstrel Show and Serving the Big Gangsters."

"(He) has[a] vision of a Southern plantation-type structure."

— Elgin Baylor on Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angles Clippers NBA team

*****

Elgin Baylor, a Black and former great player for the LA Lakers and who is in the NBA Hall of Fame, has filed a law suit against Donald Sterling, the Los Angeles Clippers team, and the NBA (National Basketball Association) charging "decades-long racist behavior" among other things that happened to Baylor during his 22-year tenure as General Manager of the Clippers.1

Baylor, who was recently released as the Clippers General Manager and was basically let go by the Clippers because he refused a lower paying consulting job with them, stated that Sterling "wants to fill his team with poor black boys from the South and a white head coach." Baylor also charged that, during the negotiations with former star Danny Manning in a meeting which David Stern, Commissioner of the NBA also allegedly attended, Sterling said, "I'm offering a lot of money for a poor black kid."2

What are some of the facts involved here? 1) Mike Dunleavy, the white head coach received a four-year, $22-million contract while Baylor's salary was frozen at a comparatively paltry $350,000 since 2003, and this disparity of pay was "condoned, adopted, and ratified by the NBA"; 2) Donald Sterling, has a history of racism and paying his players less than the league average; 3) The NBA has very few African Americans in executive roles; 4) The NBA is a league of Black players with white owners, white executives, and a white audience in its arenas.

In "The NBA: Marketing the Minstrel Show and Serving the Big Gangsters" Bob Avakian speaks to and chronicles how the nature of the NBA reinforces and endorses the oppressive relations for Black people in today's society. He goes on to show how the marketing strategy of the NBA has a racist component, where arenas are in the suburbs of the cities and only the wealthy can afford to attend the games. In this talk, Avakian makes an important analysis about the type of role models the NBA needs, and I see how this relates to the role that Elgin Baylor has played for the NBA, where he has been the perfect Black role model for the league by, what Avakian has provocatively pointed out, "serving the master in sneakers."3

But for Baylor enough was enough with the "decades-long racist behavior" of the league and the Clippers' owner that he has endured and that he felt had to be dealt with in this law suit.

To better understand what Baylor has been dealing with, it is necessary to look more closely at his ex-boss, Donald Sterling, whose history reveals the real racist scum-bag that he is.

In 2003, Sterling, who has made all his money in real estate and owns about 100 apartment buildings with thousands of rental units in LA County, admitted he had a 3-year relationship with a Beverly Hills woman where he paid her for sex at $500 a time. In a 2003 deposition, Sterling gave graphic accounts of his relationship with the woman. He stated that "maybe I morally did something wrong", but he was not one bit shy about recounting everything that happened in all his encounters with the woman, where he brazenly admitted how great it was—"better than words could express."4

Sterling's history of racism has been brought out in several law suits against him. According to the LA Times, "One suit was filed in 2003 by the nonprofit Housing Rights Center and was settled with the terms remaining confidential. According to that suit, Sterling allegedly told members of his staff he did not like to rent to Latinos or African Americans."5 One of the known terms of the suit is that Sterling was required to pay $5 million in fees to the plaintiff's attorneys.

Now there is another discrimination suit, which will go to trial next year, filed against Sterling by the Justice Department. This suit alleges that Sterling excluded African Americans from renting in his apartment buildings and that he has refused to rent to non-Koreans in his buildings in Koreatown.

Sterling has also spent a ton of money in promoting himself. In full-page ads in the front section of the LA Times he has promoted himself as a homeless advocate where he is proclaiming that he will build a medical and legal facility in the heart of Skid Row to be known as the Donald T. Sterling Homeless Center. In an expose that this homeless center is a fraud, the LA Weekly stated:

"These days, though, Sterling's vow to help the homeless is looking more like a troubling, ego-inflating gimmick dreamed up by a very rich man with a peculiar public-relations sense: Witness his regular advertisements proclaiming another 'humanitarian of the year' award — for himself. From homeless-services operators to local politicians, no one has received specifics for the proposed Sterling Homeless Center. They aren't the least bit convinced that the project exists."6

All of this gives us a picture of the racist, scum-bag, egotistical person that Elgin Baylor put up with for 22 years and is now refusing to put up with for another second. Can anyone doubt the truth in the words of Baylor's attorney in his current suit against Sterling? "I think it is very interesting that this owner has had a history of questionable conduct in both his other business ventures. It lends credence and support to many of the allegations we are making in the lawsuit."7

I remember seeing Elgin Baylor play for Seattle University and the LA Lakers. He was a marvelous player, who overcame Tourette's Syndrome and played a game that I love with a particular flair and skill of few. I rooted for Elgin when he played and I now give him kudos for his attempts to bring the racism of the NBA to the light of the day. However, all the law suits in the world will not end the racism in the NBA or end the oppression of Black people in America. Only communist revolution can do that. I urge everyone who reads this to listen to Bob Avakian's talk on the NBA and to read the special issue #144 of Revolution on "The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and the Revolution We Need" and then join the revolutionary movement by distributing Revolution newspaper and the works of Bob Avakian. This is a movement we urgently need to build in order to put an end to all this shit that people like Elgin Baylor come up against every day.

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