May 26th: Running the Race Race

Well, if anyone was going to say something to rekindle the Donald Sterling fire, it was Mark Cuban. The Dallas Mavericks owner shared his thoughts on the Clippers’ tarnished owner in an interview with Inc. Magazine, which launched into a full-blown news piece by Thursday.

In the interview, Cuban attempted to share his concerns in regards to taking a team away from a man because of his personal opinions. In an attempt to get his point across, Cuban acknowledged that everyone harbors some level of “prejudices and bigotries,” and that, while Sterling’s comments are unacceptable, it is a challenging proposition to take the team away from the man.

"I mean, we're all prejudiced in one way or another. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face -- white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere -- I'm walking back to the other side of the street. And the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of. So in my businesses, I try not to be hypocritical. I know that I'm not perfect. I know that I live in a glass house, and it's not appropriate for me to throw stones."

The aftermath was swift and bold. Bomani Jones, a sports writer for ESPN, started a twitter battle with Cuban. The “hoodie” comment was torn apart for its uncomfortable similarity to the Trayvon Martin incident (for which Cuban apologized while standing by his intended point). The sports world erupted with reactions, each trying to decide whether Cuban was, himself, a bigoted racist, or a visionary in the social world.

Regardless of anyone’s personal opinions on Cuban, he has always been blunt in his portrayal of what is best for basketball, for sports, and for society as a whole. He has never been afraid to say what he thinks is right, regardless of the political correctness of his statement. This situation is no different. While an unpopular idea, the notion of acknowledging our own bigotries is necessary in understanding how to come to terms with Donald Sterling’s comments.

What Sterling said was heinous. It was unacceptable, it has no place in sports, let alone 21st century society, and it represents the need to take away his power in American culture. That being said, though, Cuban’s cautions about taking a person’s assets away because of a personal belief is definitely one that speaks to the rationality of the situation, rather than simply an emotional reaction.

It is impossible to know how someone feels about a given topic, until he opens his mouth. While Sterling is guilty of being a bigot, a racist, and an overall terrible person, it is important to accept a few things. First, he did not begin to be a jerk a month ago. He has had a history of accusations and lawsuits accusing him of disgusting behavior. The reality is, this is the first time he got caught outright.

But how do we know there aren’t other owners in the league harboring the same kind of feelings, with the benefit of not getting caught? This is the root of Cuban’s point: the NBA has 30 owners. We only know the personal feelings of one of them. Are we to take the man’s team away when it is quite possible that others exist with the same feelings, but have done a better job of keeping those hostilities quiet?

There is, of course, one area in which Cuban vastly under-sold our society: he didn’t make any attempt to make things better. Cuban is somewhat famous for this. In his assessment of the NBA, NFL, and race, he always makes very bold statements about the way things are, while rarely venturing to do anything to make things better. Maybe he is trying to inspire others to make a positive change. Maybe he is attempting to shed light on a situation and see where society takes us. In any case, the answer “sometimes we’re all racist” isn’t doing nearly enough to fix the problem.

Throughout the Sterling saga, Mark Cuban has been something of a voice of caution, trying to be the seemingly only rational person involved in the situation. His rationality, though, started to tip-toe past thoughtful and into a scary place that people don’t want to hear. Instead of reacting to the “what” he is saying, it’s time that the NBA and its fans begin to consider how those comments  fit within the context of the racial issues facing the league today.

May 19th: An "Epic" Post

It has been a little over a week since I graduated college. Even saying that sentence still seems strange to me. The process wasn’t that different than it is any year I leave school: I packed up my stuff, I drove home, I spent a week trying to figure out where I was going to put all of my stuff. The difference, I suppose, is what comes next.

But before I can move on, I always like to take the time to reflect on what has just happened. I graduated from Indiana University in three years. I graduated with degrees in Jewish Studies and Telecommunications. I graduated with a solid GPA, a beefed up resume, and a job.

College for me, though, was always more of a learning experience outside of the classroom than it ever was inside. In fact, one of the hardest things I learned was how to balance the work of college with the application of it in the real world. There were students who spent all of their time on their schoolwork. There were others who didn’t do any schoolwork. Finding a balance between these two poles was something that was a daily challenge.

Balance is, really, the basis of the entire college experience. Each student needs to find a balance for their time, a balance for their extra-curricular experiences, a balance for their consumption of food (and alcohol). The students that are most successful in school are not the ones with the highest GPAs, but are the ones who find the greatest balance for their day-to-day life.

Now, though, I consider my own pursuit of balance, and the role that it played in my desire to graduate a year early. One of my favorite quotes that I’ve ever heard comes from Mark Twain, who said “I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.” It was halfway through my sophomore year that I realized that my education was being stunted by the need to be in the classroom. I was learning a lot in my classes, but not as much as I was learning elsewhere. When I realized I was in a position to do something new, something different, I decided to take it.

As my college time was coming to an end, my roommate and I made an effort to do something different, something fun, something meaningful, every day. We didn’t want a single day to go by that we didn’t take advantage of all of the incredible things school had to offer. Some of the things we did were as simple as watching a sporting event with good friends. Others were going out and seeing parts of campus that we would miss the most.

In each and every case, though, I came away with the feeling that I was attempting to say goodbye to something that wasn’t really ending, but simply changing. Since October, when the idea that I was graduating first started setting in, I’ve been rolling around what I wanted to say. I’ve been planning the most epic blog post of all time. Yet, now that I’m sitting down to write it, I realize that this isn’t a singular experience. College has been, in a way, who I’ve been for the past three years. I’ve grown up so much in the way I act, the way I think, and the way I write. It isn’t a single, giant blog post that is going to summarize where I’ve come from over the past three years. It is three years worth of blogging. Three years of pieces maturing before the eyes of my readers. Anyone can see where I have come from by watching my weekly (well, ideally) writing.

This coming year will be an adventure. I have a job I’m excited about, future plans, and a great living situation. I’m going to go out and look for exciting and different things to fill my time. A one-day job shadowing here, a trip to someplace I’ve never been there. I’m going to make the most of this year that I’m taking for myself.  Yet, as I learned in the last three years, every day has an incredible experience to share. You just have to be paying attention to it when it happens.