Jed Diamond, PhD wonders if the world would be better if, instead of just punishing racists, we tried to rehabilitate them?
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Most everyone has read the headlines:
- NBA investigating Clippers owner Donald Sterling for alleged racist comments
- NBA players protest racist talk attributed to L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling
- Players want Donald Sterling ejected from the NBA family
- NBA commissioner bans Clippers owner Sterling, pushes to “force a sale” of team
The controversy began when TMZ published the audio from a nine-minute phone call between L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his then-mistress V. Stiviano. Deadspin later acquired an extended 15-minute version of their conversation, in which Sterling told Stiviano she should not bring black people to Clippers games.
“I don’t understand, I don’t see your views,” Stiviana, who is African American, is heard saying. “I wasn’t raised the way you were raised.”
“Well, then, if you don’t feel—don’t come to my games,” Sterling replied. “Don’t bring black people, and don’t come.”
Since the racism remarks and sentiments behind them were made public there has been a tremendous outpouring of protests and calls for punishment. On April 29, 2014 Adam Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, came down hard on Sterling, ordering him out of all his team’s activities and pushing to force him to sell the team over racist remarks that caused a firestorm since becoming public days ago. Adam Silver also detailed Sterling’s punishment of a lifetime ban and $2.5 million fine — the “maximum amount” allowed per league guidelines.
Silver’s decision was met with immediate support from NBA owners, players and others connected to the league who have been calling for swift, firm punishment ever since TMZ posted audio featuring the incendiary comments. But is punishment the best solution? Sterling can be removed and forced to sell the Clippers, but will that get at the deeper problems of racism in our society? Will punishment provide the greatest good?
What hasn’t been talked about is restorative justice. We live in a society that often looks for a quick solution to deeply seated social problems. We want to find out who’s to blame and then punish them. End of story. But restorative justice takes a different approach. Restorative justice emphasizes repairing the harm caused by hateful and hurtful acts. When victims, offenders and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results can be transformational.
Evidently Sterling bought the L.A. Clippers basketball team for $15 million many years ago. It is reportedly worth $700 million to $1 billion. As basketball legend Charles Barkley remarked, making him turn over his $15 million investment and get back $1 billion isn’t much of a punishment.
What would happen instead of trying to find the worst punishment for Sterling, we took a restorative justice approach? Perhaps he would sit down with Coach Doc Rivers, his black and white players and let them tell him to his face what it feels like to work for a man who made the racist comments he made. Maybe he would tell them what was going on inside his mind that caused him to make the remarks.
Perhaps fans who pay to see professional basketball games could tell Sterling how they feel. Maybe he could listen to the millions of boys and girls, men and women, who can’t afford the price of admission to a game. Perhaps Sterling could talk about his life and why Larry King says that no one likes Sterling. “I don’t think he has one friend,” said King.
Maybe he could be drawn back into the community, rather than isolated and ostracized. Perhaps he could be engaged to spend some of the hundreds of millions of dollars healing racism in our country rather than perpetuating it.
Perhaps if he could be deeply heard and healed he might become a better husband, a better person, a better man. Maybe our world would be a better place to live if Donald Sterling could truly make amends.
My feeling is that the people of color in Sterling’s life have NO obligation to sit down and tell them how they feel – it seems like the victims of his hate, in this scenario, are the ones who are in the role of “teacher” and in reality they have NO responsibility to anybody to have to teach this guy a thing. He could’ve learned it the way the rest of us did, and he chose not to.
I agree Joanna that people in Sterling’s life have no responsibility to sit down with them. Restorative justice is a way of looking at the world that looks to have people truly hear each other and for those to do hurtful acts to make real amends to those they have harmed. Whether this would have worked for Sterling, we don’t know. It hasn’t been tried. But I’m suggesting that as a society we are too focused on punishment and not enough on justice. Our prisons are full of people who have broken the law or harmed others, but little attempt… Read more »
i’ve been saying the same thing. after all is said and done what do we have left? 1) a 2.5 million dollar fine which is far and away worlds greater than previous fines that concerned drugs, DUIs, physical fighting and yes…homophobic slurs. (also, im curious does this fine just go back to the NBA coffers or does it go towards something useful that might actually help the minority communities this man sought to marginalize) 2) a very pissed off billionaire and millions of racist sympathizers who likely only took a couple things away from this whole affair a) minorities and… Read more »
In the 40 plus years I’ve been doing therapy I’ve been amazed at the transformations I’ve seen, even in the most outrageously destructive people. I don’t know Donald Sterling, but I’ve known a lot of people like him. I don’t know whether restorative justice would work in his case, but I do know its helped bring about peaceful settlements in bloody disagreements between marital partners, neighbors, and even waring factions. I’m just suggesting that our knee jerk “punishment” mentality does not serve the best of what we are capable of becoming. I think the Good Men Project is testament to… Read more »
I do not think banishment is “knee jerk” punishment, but a wise, rational choice for billionaires with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). There is no evidence that any intervention will have any effect: It is unusual for people to seek therapy for NPD. This is partly due to the NPD sufferers’ not believing they have a problem. Most, if not all, are unable to see the destructive damage they are causing to themselves and to others and usually only seek treatment at the insistence of relatives and friends. Unconscious fears of exposure or inadequacy often cause defensive disdain of therapeutic processes.”… Read more »
I very much agree with this approach. What is highly lacking in the court of public opinion is the need for intelligent, open, objective discussion. Can this “fix” Sterling? Maybe, maybe not. But we need to stop this inflamed discourse and move towards a place of dialog and understanding. On one hand, I see people making broad and demeaning statements about cultures, people groups and ethnic groups and on the other, those who get offended and play the race card whenever it’s to their advantage. We need to meet in the middle and get to a place of understanding. Ignorance… Read more »
Sorry Jed, but Mr. Sterling is a raging narcissist and he is severely lacking in the skills and motivation to listen to others or learn from emotional cues from others. He cares only about his image and uses people as pawns. He will manipulate his way into some martyr role and feel that he was “misunderstood” by all those lesser beings. Yes, our world would be a better place if Mr. Sterling could make amends, but that chance is slim to none with a narcissist. He feeds off of attention of others. It is best to isolate him and ignore… Read more »