Mark Cuban, the famous Dallas Mavericks owner, backpedaled — sort of — when he gave a reckless extensive interview that included his aversions to black boys with hoodies at night, which was an affront to the Trayvon Martin survivors as well as his many supporters.
In an interview with Inc magazine at a tattoo convention in Nashville, Tenn., the “Shark Tank” cast member talked about ingrained prejudices within all humans. Many saw it as a tempt to soften ill feelings about exiled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is determined to make Sterling relinquish ownership of the Clippers because of his rabidly racist words that aired publicly after being secretly recorded by his Afro-Latino mistress.
“We’re all prejudiced in one way or the other,” Cuban said.”If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking back to the other side of the street. And the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of.”
Cuban felt the blowback from the “hoodie” reference and immediately took to Twitter to offer a mea culpa for his gaffe.
“In hindsight I should have used different examples. I didn’t consider the Trayvon Martin family and I apologize to them for that,” Cuban said.
Some believe that Cuban, who admitted that he likes the 80-year-old Sterling, has very sympathetic feelings and wants Sterling to get a second chance. He said the day before that he knows how he’s going to vote on June 3 in a decision by the NBA owners on whether to permanently ban Sterling from the sport, but he refused to divulge his sentiments.
Because of his statements in support of Sterling, many people will be watching on June 3 to see what the vote count is. If anyone votes in favor of keeping Sterling, everyone will be looking in Cuban’s direction.
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