Sterling Scandal Shows We Do Not Live in a Post-Racist Society

When you spend your life around the NBA, you get a skewed vision of racial harmony. Black players get along with white players, international players intermingle with American players, and the melting pot fosters racial tolerance and harmony.

As many have said over the past few days, there is no room for racism in the NBA. And by and large, there isn't much racism in the league. The culture is so harmonious, in fact, that it can make folks in the NBA forget that bigotry is very much alive and thriving in various areas. 

So when you consider the NBA players' and coaches' distaste for the comments attributed to Clippers owner Donald Sterling, remember that they come from a culture of diversity. The playing field is the great equalizer among athletes, whether professional or amateur, and is often the first place where basketball players and other athletes become multi-cultural people.

Americans live in a country that has a dark-skinned president working through his second four-year term, and there is a school of thought that we have entered a collective post-racism state of being.

Sterling's purported comments are a reminder that not everyone is as altruistic as we would often like to believe.

More on that in this interview with the Big O show on AM640 in Miami.