Chris Jepson: Big, Dumb White Boys and other advocates of racism

Is racism ever coincidental? Make that ironical. Is it coincidence or merely one of those times when coincidence “morphs” into irony when the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Michigan State’s ban on Affirmative Action just as two outrageous examples of racism roil the nation.

I refer to Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy’s comments on “negroes” and Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling’s observations on exactly who his girlfriend V. Stiviano shouldn’t be seen with publicly (hint: they ain’t Scandinavian).

Mr. Bundy exemplifies one of my favorite stereotypes, Big, Dumb White Boys (BDWBs). I am particularly impressed when the BDWB TV station of choice, FOX News gets behind a true American BDWB patriot such as Cliven Bundy in his fight against the Federal “Guberment.” Hundreds of NRA goofs, survivalists and white supremacists—guns ablazin’! —showed-up to defend Mr. Bundy’s right to steal from Uncle Sam (ur, excuse me, patriotically graze his cattle free on public lands). FOX News nearly had an orgasm (HEY! If corporations are now people, why not corporate orgasms?) over Bundy’s heroic struggle to stiff the American people.

Alas, sigh. FOX News nearly broke its corporate legs backtracking away from Mr. Bundy after he was quoted saying, “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro . . . They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?”

That’s the problem with BDWBs, they’re unbelievably ignorant. However Mr. Bundy arrived at this moment—his 15 minutes of fame in the national spotlight—he has unequivocally disgraced himself and delightfully discredited (for me) his corporate creator, FOX News. Too funny.

Not nearly so funny is Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling. He owns (for 30 years) a professional sports team in a league comprised of 75 percent black athletes, as is his Clipper basketball team. A particularly painful irony in this incident is Mr. Sterling is Jewish (more on that shortly). Sterling’s girlfriend V. Stiviano had the temerity to be seen publicly with black people and it enraged him.

Mr. Sterling was caught on tape upbraiding his girlfriend stating, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to? . . . You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games . . . I’m just saying, in your lousy Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people."

This is a man who makes his living (partly) off the sweat (literally) of exceptional black athletes. To harbor rancor or resentment, to in anyway disassociate yourself from “them that got-ya here” (the prestige and wealth from being an NBA team owner) is the height of hypocrisy. That you are Jewish, and knowing all that that implies from an historical perspective of discrimination and abuse, truly saddens me. You, Mr. Sterling, must know better than most that one’s ethnicity, race or religion is no justification for bigotry.

If blacks bother you so, Mr. Sterling, why the hell didn’t you buy the Anaheim Ducks hockey team? Out of a 30-man roster, 29 are white.