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

Honestly, yes, don't really have a problem with that. This happens a lot more then people think, it's just not published. Businesses target certain demographics all the time. The practice may be racist itself, but I don't think the owner should be blamed for that.

 

saying something NOT EQUAL TO selling business

 

The email was written two years ago. The timing of today's decision is suspicious. I think he's just snitching on himself to try and get a big payday.

 

The horror...

 

The email is written as if he isn't really racist and doesn't think it's right that he has to make these changes but his target demographic (adult white males) is very racist.

Most businesses operate the same way. They're just smart enough not to explicitly speak on race.

And, I hate to say it, but from my experience, some of what he said is true. I've met a lot of white people that are terrified of being around large groups of black people, regardless of how safe the situation actually is.

 

Yeah, too many people who post on message boards live in a bubble. The owner is a smart guy, and successful for a reason. He understands the psyche of his $$$ clientele. Houston might be different, or a ghetto place like new orleans, but georgia, Mississippi even Florida have very similar thought processes. Yes it is racist on a technical basis, but it's an accurate business strategy so I don't have an issue with it. It's like wanting to have taller players on your basketball team as opposed to shorter ones because you feel they have a higher chance of winning a game. Always exceptions, but not the norm.

 

He was dumb to write it in an email, but a lot of what he said is reality. It sucks, but it's reality. He shouldn't be forced to sell his stake in the team because of something like this. If Silver is actually forcing a sale because of this email then he is setting a bad precedent. There has to be more than this email.

 

Definitely racist. He's basically saying his black fanbase is scaring away his white fanbase. So by playing less hip hop, hopefully they can bring in more white fans. It's not hateful but still racist

 

While some of the comments in the email were a little cringe-worthy, it seemed like a pretty harmless letter in my opinion. I was completely on-board for Donald Sterling's removal, but this is just business. He was either exhausted as an owner or like others have said, just looking for a pay day. This email is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

 

He didn't say it like that. He said his white fan base was being racist and getting scared off by large numbers of blacks at the game.

 

I have a problem with this because the ensuing public discourse will force me to listen to more dumbasses spouting the "white men are now the oppressed in America!" bull**** that's so in vogue these days within certain out-of-touch circles.

 

Maybe you'd get more fans attending games and buying merchandise if your team wasn't stuck on the mediocrity treadmill for the last decade.

 

I saw NOTHING DAMNING there whatsoever. I mean, come on, the man clearly harbors no racist intentions, he is just talking about business.

+1

As a current Atlanta resident, I don't think he sounds ignorant at all.

 

I'd like to know the demographic breakdown of attendance - based on a quick wiki search, the city of Atlanta is about 54% AA and 38% WC. However, the metro area is 55% WC and 34% AA. So if the demographics of the attendees are not at least somewhat in line with these numbers, then it's fair to for the Hawks owners to seek to improve attendance in whatever demographic that falls short of the overall population.

I don't get the sense that the owner wanted to increase white attendance at the expense of AA attendance, but rather he wanted to increase overall attendance and that the primary "gap" appeared to be whites. While his suggestions to improve white attendance seem rather superficial (and probably wrong in a few cases - lots of whites like hip-hop music, for example) they certainly don't rise to the level of racial oppression. So calling his actions "racist" seems unwarranted - I don't see how his observations denigrate AAs. If anything, it denigrates whites.

 

Some people seem to have trouble with the definition of racism.

This poor owner should sue.

 

Not too bad. Downtown ATL where Philips is, does tend to be uninviting at night, but not too bad. Better off then Turner, which is about a mile south of the rest of downtown.

I think the Hawks season ticket holders are low because:

A) Basketball just isn't something that is that popular in GA among whites.
B) The Hawks haven't been looked as a title contender or have well established exciting NBA stars since Nique left.

 

Just seems like he's ignorant and stereotypical not openly racist and harboring hatred towards black people.

 

No, he is saying that they need to try to get more marketshare of the white fanbase.

He probably should not have put it so bluntly in email, but there is nothing wrong with a business owner saying they want to chase a certain segment of the market over the other.

That is smart business.

DD

 

It's not smart to have that email publicly revealed. Wonder who was about to leak?