In the wake of the Donald Sterling fiasco, Mark Cuban sat down with Inc. and tried to have a more nuanced discussion of the topic of race and bias (this was part of a longer interview on a variety of business topics). How thoughtful or insightful you feel his comments are speaks a lot to your perceptions on the issue, but it’s pretty clear Cuban’s trying to have a deeper, more nuanced conversation.
Nuance can get lost in the Internet translation.
Cuban got into it with a Bleacher Report writer (and eventually a founder) over their story on the video where the original headline on an article was “Cuban: ‘I Know I’m a Bigot’” (that has since been changed to “Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban: ‘We All Have Our Prejudices and Bigotries’.”) The lede of the article, which once said Cuban “shot himself in the foot” has been changed as well. Bleacher Report corrected its mistake.
I’m not going to get into that dust up (which has a longer history), if you want more read Awful Announcing which took a good look at it.
I think Cuban, like myself and many others, want to be “the white guy who gets it” in a discussion about race, but the fact is we don’t. I don’t think a “color blind society” is either possible nor an answer to racial and other bigotry issues, rather we need respectful inclusion and understanding. Many of you probably see it differently. Whatever the next steps are requires a nuanced and open-minded national conversation, not one that can take place in 140 characters. Not one where every comment becomes a partisan battle for power. As Cuban found out, it’s hard to have that conversation even in a 2:30 clip without it becoming something else.
