As more details surrounding the supposed racial comments and sale of the Atlanta Hawks come to light, it really shows how much we take words for what they are and fail to get the message.
As I read articles and the comments attached society has labeled Bruce Levenson as being just as big a racist as Donald Sterling. This is far from the truth. Has society failed to realize how businesses work or are we just fueled by events like Sterling or Ferguson to understand the difference between business and racism? Racism and discrimination has ruled this world for as long we can remember and the injustices that go along with these acts towards minorities or any group are horrific. But let’s really take into context Levenson’s emailed statements. He talked about the demographic of his arena being predominately black and how he basically felt they didn’t have a strong enough influx of whites patrons to sustain longevity as a franchise unless they found a way to get more diverse. Now I will say he could have used better word choices to describe the areas that needed to be changed but there were no references to the same bigotry that was spewed by Donald Sterling.
Every smart business executive, in any corporation has taken the same path of Levenson and thought about ways to change the demographic of their entity through race. If this wasn’t the case then why has the NBA been geared more to diversity by taking the game to other countries in order to spark interest in a sport that is majority African-American. The MLB has marketed players like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Andrew McClutchen to continue to keep the interest of its black and white fans in a sport dominated by players of Spanish descent. Would the NHL executive who tries to incorporate more African-Americans into the fold be labeled a racist? Not at all he would be marveled as the leader of change in the sport.
Maybe we are penalizing Levenson for the business model that not only has plagued sports, but society as well. That model being whites having the luxury to make up the majority of owners organizations and corporations. This in my opinion is the only reason Levenson or any owner would have to evaluate his team from the lens of race. We as a society have configured the market to be run by white owners, but now we can’t stomach the truths the come from this business model, especially when race is the topic.
If we would take the time to read the email we would see that his comments are the same ones held in meetings and conference rooms daily. No one has discussed the other topics evaluated in the email such as the greatness of the service workers throughout the arena who I’m sure are mostly minority, or ideas about different food changes that could be implemented or how he points out and puts to bed the racist remarks on message boards saying that “the arena is in the wrong area” (meaning too many blacks at the games). It’s a shame that the media and society have continued to make the “black” comments the focal point of his statements. Can we live in a society where an honest opinion is just that or will we continue label others due to our own ignorance? I feel like it is unfair to Levenson that due to his honest assessment of his franchise he is being labeled as something he never came across to be: A racist.
Below is a copy of the original email sent to Hawks ownership.
