I found this interesting as team 1 just made their presentation about flash mobs and protests.
As the basketball playoffs continue, a silent protest broke out before the game between the Clippers and Golden State Warriors. The owner of LA Clippers, Donald Sterling, made racist comments during a conversation with his girlfriend and eventually led to the woman stating that he has a whole team of black people playing for him. He responded “You just, do I know? I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? Do I know that I have – who makes the game? Do I make the game, or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners that created the league?”
This controversy and negativity floating around the team became a distraction for the Clippers. To make a unified statement, they all tossed their warm-up jackets with the Clippers name on the front to midcourt and then warmed up with their shooting shirts inside out so the word “Clippers” are not across their chest. Do you think the team made a good statement by doing a silent protest? How effective do you think it was?
Interesting topic. This was definitely not a smart move by Donald Sterling. In my opinion, the protest by Clippers’ players was a good one. By simply not wearing Clippers’ name out, they did not do anything that violates the physical rules or laws of their team or the society. At the same time, it showed their dissatisfaction towards Donald Sterling’s comments. However, to decide if this protest was effective, we have to look at the results. This protest will be effective if it helps Donald Sterling to realize what he did wrong and maybe do something tot remedy his hurtful comments.
I love that you made a post about this. I’ve seen a lot of buzz about this but didn’t know that the team did a silent protest. Like we mentioned in our presentation different types of protest can be effective depending on what the issue is and what time of impact and reaction you are trying to accomplish. From the article that you posted about, i believe that it was a great way to display how they felt. I don’t think that Donald Sterling will admit that he was wrong about what he said, but i do think that this protest is effective in causing reactions and recognition for the issue at hand.
I think this protest was effective if people are recognizing that this is their response to Sterling’s racist remarks. By wearing their shirts inside out and hiding the Clippers name, it shows that they don’t even want to represent the owner and his team name. I wouldn’t want to represent or even associate myself with someone who is clearly racist to his own team and other basketball players as well. I don’t think the Clippers team wanted to cause a riot with their protest, I think they just wanted to show people their reaction and response to the racist comments made by Sterling. I think if the team hadn’t reacted or responded collectively, then people might have assumed that they didn’t want to display their reaction publicly and questioned why they didn’t respond.