LOS ANGELES — Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers basketball team, has been the talk of the town ever since a black woman-friend made public a tape recording of his sickeningly racist rants.  It turns out that Sterling has been successfully sued as a racist landlord.  The other filthy-rich owners in the National Basketball Association responded by fining him and banning him from the league.

Sterling is a racist capitalist. All the capitalists are racist; the whole system is built on racist exploitation.

Many people are righteously angry at Donald Sterling's racist attacks on Magic Johnson and all black people.  But we need to ask why the US capitalist press is making a huge deal about the Sterling case.

It's to hide the fact that the whole profit system is racist to the core.  The NBA owners gave away T-shirts saying "We Are One."  This promotes the lie that the US is a "post-racial" society. 

Sterling's racist remarks reflect a system where over 60% of all prisoners in the US are black and latino/a even though over 60% of all US residents are white.  Almost 40% of prisoners are black even though only 14% of the population is black.   The unemployment rate for black workers is double the rate for white workers.

Racism means that black and latino/a workers get paid less than white workers, bringing the wages of all workers down. The bosses' super exploitation of black and latino/a workers helps them exploit all workers.

The bosses use racism to justify their exploitation of all workers and their super-exploitation of black and latino/a workers in the US and darker-skinned workers all over the world.  They need to divide the working class.  They need us to think that we can't unite as a class to overthrow them and build a world based on communist collectivity to meet all workers' needs.

Getting a new owner for the Clippers is not how to fight racism.

We don't need owners of anything—not profit-making sports teams or profit-making factories that exploit workers.  The way to end racism is to fight to destroy capitalism by mobilizing for communist revolution.  

Getting rid of the money system will wipe out the material basis of racism.  As millions plan and produce collectively to meet all workers' needs, we will create the material basis for a culture of solidarity and collectivity. 

Communist workers' power will mobilize millions to stop racist language and acts.   We won't be divided by "race" or borders.  We will be one working class fighting for and building one communist world.

Struggle to raise communist line massively

Some college students got into a heated discussion about what Sterling's woman-friend was willing to put up with for the money she got from him.  A few blamed her for being greedy.

 "She's doing whatever it takes to survive, like everyone else working for Sterling," replied a male comrade who saw the finger-pointing as sexist.  Nobody is blaming the Clippers players for putting up with Sterling's racism.

"The players are just higher-paid slaves," said a high school student. 

"The players are millionaires but the owners make billions by exploiting them," said a young comrade.

"The owners make their money off the workers who clean the stadiums and all the other workers involved, not just the players," someone pointed out.  "The NBA and FIFA (international soccer association) are multi-million dollar companies."

"Once players make a lot of money, they invest it and become capitalists," offered another.    Michael Jordan, for one, profits from Nike sweatshops and is himself an NBA owner.  Magic Johnson has a net worth of over $600 million.

"The players are not doing socially useful work," insisted another comrade.  "Under communism we will not have professional entertainment, including pro sports."

Most students in the high school discussion  thought that communism "will never happen" because of "human nature." 

"What would it take to change society and the way we think?" asked a teacher.  "What did it take to end slavery?"

The students agreed that it took a civil war.

"So what would it take to end racist capitalism?" 

"I get it," a student exclaimed.  "Civil war and revolution!"

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