Too busy to hate?

16th September 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

So I’m home sipping on a big cup of lemon-ginger tea when I hear this story about an NBA franchise owner who dropped a dime on himself about controversial remarks about Black people he made in 20121. Not exactly what I expected on the evening news but as I have learned in this era of videotaped elevator brawls, cyberspace skirmishes and recorded racist jokes and songs to expect the unexpected. Just about anything is possible.

In an August 2012 email to the team’s general manager, Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson shared his observations of the fan experience at Hawks games. He said he concluded “southern whites” were uncomfortable at games.

“My theory is that the Black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent Black fans to build a significant season ticket base,” Levenson said in the email released Sept. 7 by the Hawks.

So in the so-called City Too Busy To Hate, southern whites are uncomfortable at NBA games with Black folks and Atlanta doesn’t have enough “affluent” Black people “to build a significant season ticket base”?

Seriously?

First of all, Atlanta has nothing on New Orleans when it comes to racial antipathy and distrust, but every Sunday in the fall NFL fans of all hues come together in the Louisiana Superdome to root on the Black and Gold weekend warriors. “Southern” whites in New Orleans, a city about as far South as you can go without hitting Central America, seem to have no problem with rooting for the Saints alongside Black Who Dat fans. After the games, they simply go back to being residents in one of America’s most racially divided cities, a city with racial disparities that boggle the human mind.

If Black and white Who Dat fans can do that in the “N.O.” getting along ought to be a piece of cake for whites and Blacks in the City Too Busy To Hate.

Secondly, when did Atlanta start struggling with retaining successful Black people? From everything that has been written about Atlanta over the past few decades, one can only conclude that the ATL is one of the nation’s hottest dwelling places for Black professionals and entrepreneurs. With all that economic firepower and the spending power of the city’s many Black celebrity transplants, why can’t the Atlanta Hawks attract Black folks with bank?

Could it be that the organization hasn’t really made an effort to reach out to Black NBA fans and hasn’t marketed the franchise to Black professionals? Or could it be that the Atlanta Hawks brain trust don’t want to be known as the NBA franchise with a mostly Black fan base?

That wouldn’t be an unprecedented situation. Years ago, a colleague who lived in Washington, DC told me about how that once-overwhelmingly Black town had a group of Washington Bullets season ticket holders that was just 15 percent Black.

Levenson did say that the fans at Hawks home games are 70 percent Black, the team’s cheerleaders are Black and hip-hop music was played at Phillips Arena.

“Then I start looking around at other arenas,” Levenson said. “It is completely different.”

Completely different from the vibe at Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers home games. Apparently, most of the NBA players are Black and most of the fans in the arena are white.

Levenson was reportedly miffed about the fact that Black fans who attended Hawks games congregated in the various bar areas but did not spend enough money on what are likely overpriced and watered-down mixed drinks.

Apparently, there still remain businessmen who think that Black customers are bad for business. Some simply don’t want Black people to buy and/or use their products and services. Gloria Vanderbilt, who infamously said she didn’t design her jeans to be worn by Black women, and the preppy clothing chain Abercrombie & Fitch come to mind.

My whole thing is I’m certain that these are not the worst remarks Levenson has ever made about people of color, nor were his 2012 comments about Black Hawks fans causing him to lose any sleep at night.

So why come clean? And why now?

Because he wanted an out. He clearly wanted to sell his controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks and get a good deal.

Essentially, he learned a great deal from the Los Angeles Clippers scandal.

He knew that releasing statements he made about Black people would cause an uproar in the civil rights community and have many people calling for his removal. What better way to exit the NBA than with a golden, no platinum, parachute?

He’s trying to play us, y’all.

I’m waiting for one of these billionaires to slip up and say what it’s painfully clear that many of them have been thinking for years about Black professional athletes. It must be infuriating to be a billionaire and still have to watch what you say about a certain segment of the population.

I suppose it helps when these professional sports team owners pump millions of their profits into groups formed to steal the hopes and dreams of people of color, women and the poor.

Thus far, the one who has come closest to letting it slip out was Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who was livid about LeBron James jumping ship to sign with the Miami Heat several years ago.

Essentially, Gilbert was channeling singer Chris Brown after LeBron fled the Cavaliers plantation and starting blasting the athlete by telling the world, “These slaves ain’t loyal!”

I humbly propose that we forgive Bruce Levenson but never forget what he said. Let’s give him a chance to make it up to people of color by creating opportunities in the Hawks organization and in the community. Let him show us how contrite he can be and how much he has grown as a human being since 2012.

It doesn’t sound like Levenson is sorry about what he said. It actually sounds like those emails were part of his exit strategy, an easy way out for an NBA co-owner hoping to fold his cards and maximize his profits.

The latest NBA controversy is particularly interesting since it happened in Atlanta, a town in the Deep South that has famously branded itself as the City Too Busy to Hate.

Apparently, too busy to hate but not too busy to use hate-filled emails to rake in substantial money for an Atlanta Hawks team Levenson thinks has a Black albatross around its neck.

Too busy to hate?

Where they do dat?

This article originally published in the September 15, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.