To the Editor:

The U.S. Constitution that protects blacks and all other Americans also protects Mr. Donald Sterling, the billionaire basketball owner, giving him the right to think and say whatever he wishes, however repugnant and reprehensible his remarks were about blacks in general and Magic Johnson in particular. The severest financial and personal prices he might have to pay will be condign, though some may argue that his past actions as a property owner were far more reproachable and damaging.

Still, it can’t give us a lot of comfort to know that his most private thoughts and feelings were taped, probably surreptitiously. As we condemn Sterling, we should remember that most of us, on occasion, have had a thought or feeling that we would not want broadcasted worldwide. We must all work unceasingly to have fewer hurtful, despicable and shameful thoughts, feelings and words, though we may enjoy constitutional rights to harbor them.

Our concerns are not improperly placed on the elevation of our private and personal behaviors. But we must pay far greater attention to court decisions and actions that retard progressive steps toward a more just America. Policies allowing billionairesto contribute more to campaigns, permitting individual states to decide whether they wish to have affirmative action programs, etc., provide fertile ground in which the seeds of oppression of the poor, racism, sexism and homophobia germinate.

–Booker Peek

Emeritus Associate Professor, Africana Studies