Hawks to be Sold After Revelation of Racist E-Mail by Owner

suuuure.

Sterling had said blatantly racist comments for 30 years.

 

It's true, southern white ppl generally have less an interest in nba basketball

Unless the team is the only.show in town they will be apathetic

 

So will all of they're pieces be available? Millsap? Teague? Horford?.............................Soon...........................lol I'm jk

 

Reading this email, this aint nowhere Close to Sterling.

Mostly overreacting to sterotypical reasons why the Team wasnt making money

 

The problem with the e-mail is that he's making assumptions about the sales data without any actual research data to support his hypothesis.

He does not have data to imply that the racial demographic of his fan base is affecting the white fan base, this is an assumption based upon conjecture derived from his own personal worldview.

He looks at the differences between the Hawks and other teams and of all the potential reasons for why the Hawks would perform poorly (treadmill/sub par performance, location, lack of star power, mid/small market, etc, etc), the first assumption he makes is that it's racially driven. He has no data that implies this, or even anecdotal evidence pointing in this direction. In other words, this is completely driven by his own personal conscious/subconscious biases.

This form of racism isn't "Archie Bunker" in your face racism, it's the far more subtle institutional and cultural racism that takes place in the sanctum of boardrooms, often justified under the aegis of "chasing profit".

Let's flip the script... what if that same e-mail said the same thing but it was about whites? IE, the problem is that they have too many white fans, too many white people in the stands, too many white cheerleaders, too much country music playing, and not enough single parents at the game?

Does that still sound so innocent?

 

Silver is cleaning house. I like this guy.

 

If he said that his team had too many white fans and that they were playing too much country music, no one would care. Indeed it has been mentioned and discussed with Major League Baseball and the Houston Astros.

 

But that's how a lot of

Spoiler

racist

people think. Sad but I've worked in plants where they would bash teams with majority black players who played well vs white teams who played poorly. But Atlanta does have a problem though there was a lot of "code words" similar to people calling Richard Sherman a thug earlier this year, I should be used to it but

Spoiler

racist

people still get under my skin and piss me off as I've been a victim of their learned behavior and treatment

 

Gotcha... but it is okay for you to say "Atlanta has a problem." The hypocrisy is strong.

 

I think there's a fairly substantial grain of truth to what he was writing. Of course he went too far with it and removing himself is the right move, but at least he owned it.

I don't think it's racist at all to point out that the white middle-aged demo has the most disposable income for things like pro sports. It was poor judgment to proceed from there to link their absence with the presence of blacks. I think it is a true statement for the motivation of some white businessmen but certainly not anything resembling all.

 

What did the email say? If you substitute analytics for opinions in a business setting you avoid this problem. You can mold analytics to support any decision you want to make.

 

It's THIS part that's most relevant.

Whites have more disposable income? That's fine as it's most likely factual.
They want more whites at the game? Also fine as expanding your demographic is good business.

Linking it to the presence of blacks? The use of black cheerleaders? The playing of hip hop and gospel music? With no data to support those links or assumptions?

That's where you start to cross the line from analysis to racial bias and stereotyping. And since the guy turned himself in, it seems that he's aware that he crossed that line.

Anyway, I guess we'll find out if the Clippers sale was just a LA thing, or if the value of NBA franchises as a whole have gone up as much as many of us think.

 

Honestly, I don't think that email is racist at all. He is trying to figure out why attendance isn't better, and he came to an uncomfortable conclusion.

Sometimes, the reality is uncomfortable... but it's reality.

Now, you can disagree with his theory as to why attendance is low, but nothing he said is racist in my opinion.

 

He's not saying there are too many black fans. He is saying there aren't enough white fans.

The white suburban demographic is generally a better demographic because they are generally wealthier and buy season tickets.

He's saying the game atmosphere was catering to black culture and shut out whites. He is saying they should mix it up more to be more fan-friendly to whites as well as blacks.

It's not racist at all.

 

Ugh..make it stop. Another overblown situation.

 

All I want to know is, are they willing to trade Milsap now?

We have Donatas Motiejunas, Papanikolaou, rights to Gentile, Llull and the Pelicans pick (Mario Hezonja, Kristaps Porzingis are possible choices).

 

it's not his fault southern middle age white males are afraid of the blacks

just check D&D

 

excerpt...

:grin:

 

You've obviously never been around white southern suburban moms. When I was growing up, a lot of my friends moms would never let us go anywhere near some of the movie theatre's because the crowd was "too rough". Sensitive topic no doubt, but I honestly don't think the owner is too wrong