Grant’s take: Sterling doesn’t accurately reflect American society

Many act like the racist comments of NBA owner and general scumbag Donald Sterling are undeniable proof that America remains a racist country. President Obama himself commented that “The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation.”

I am not at all convinced that this isolated comment had anything to do with the “legacy of race and slavery and segregation” in America. Donald Sterling in no way represents the average person living in America today. He is clearly unabashedly immoral, flaunting an extra-marital affair in a public place. So it makes no sense that his opinions should carry any weight in the question of how racist America is.

Frankly, it was inappropriate for the president to comment on an incident as insignificant as this with such a heavy response. We are not in this case wrestling with any legacy: Donald Sterling happens to have made a racist comment, end of story.

Jacob’s take: Sterling represents the fact that racism still exists as a palpable reality

While Sterling may not accurately represent the whole of American society, I think that his comments do show that there are still racist people in the United States. It’s unfortunate, and most people don’t pay them much mind, but they do still exist. To me, at least, that is what people mean when they say we’re still “struggling” with racism. It may not be the most pressing issue, as it has dropped out of the forefront of issues and been replaced with things like gay rights and religious or gender based discrimination, but it still does exist. That is what Donald Sterling served as a reminder of – not that we’re a racist country, not even that there are a great many racists in our country, but that there are still some racists in our country. And although they constitute a rather small and latent minority, this fact deserves some recognition.