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Originally Posted by packs
I don't know guys. You're talking about marginalized African Americans and women and somehow equating their experience to that of white men in America. Doesn't seem to match up.
You posted a general summary of what he said. Not what he actually said. Which was that he believed African Americans don't have money, scare white people, the cheerleading team is too black, and even the kiss cam is too black. That's not a good way of expressing your views on racial divide in your city.
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You also have posted your interpretations of his words, with some spin, and not what he said.
I have no idea whether or not the blacks in questioned are 'marginalized'. I do now that, having lived in the Atlanta area for 12 years, and Seattle for 8, that the race dynamics thing is hugely different between the two areas, and it has to do mainly with specific attitudes in the two geographies. Questions as to what race fans are would never come up in Seattle, whereas it is obviously somewhat important in Atlanta. There are reasons for that, and fault lies on both sides. I'm telling you this from experience, not from theory.
I'm not going to go dig up the email, but I don't believe he said that African Americans don't have money, only that there weren't enough of them interested in spending it on basketball, and that's key - he was running a business, which required that he get more attendance. The 'primarily black' formula wasn't/isn't working. Your comment that he said "the cheerleading team is too black" is also a bit misleading - he wanted some white cheerleaders so it didn't look like his team was designed only for black fans. What is wrong with that?
Nothing either of us have said has or will change the facts in Atlanta.
I think the owner used the 'LA Clippers debacle' to get out of being an owner of the Hawks. He knew that if he published that email and volunteered to sell, he'd be allowed off the hook quickly and painlessly. Bye bye bad business situation.