In addition to receiving a lifetime ban from the NBA, Los Angeles Clippers Owner Donald Sterling will also lose a “Lifetime Achievement Award” that the NAACP was set to give him. Why, that’s nearly as outrageous as Rev. Al Sharpton celebrating the NAACP’s Centennial with Ogilvy.
NAACP to tighten up award policies amid Sterling scandal
By Bruce Golding
The NAACP announced Tuesday that it would issue new directives to avoid embarrassments like the since-scrapped plan to honor racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
The civil-rights group’s LA chapter was all set to give Sterling a “Lifetime Achievement Award” next month until he was caught on tape ranting at his then-girlfriend for publicly “associating with black people.”
In a statement right after Sterling’s lifetime ban from the NBA, the NAACP said: “We will be developing guidelines for our units to help them in their award selection process and prevent unfortunate decisions like this from occurring in the future.”
Interim NAACP President Lorraine Jenkins announced Sunday that Sterling would not be honored, as had been planned, at the LA chapter’s upcoming 100th anniversary gala.
She also issued a statement saying “we have strongly urged our Los Angeles unit to take the necessary steps to rescind the previous award they bestowed on him.”
At a Monday news conference, LA chapter President Leon Jenkins said Sterling “has given out a tremendous amount of scholarships, he has invited numerous African-American kids to summer camps, and his donations are bigger than other sports franchises.”
Jenkins, however, called Sterling’s recorded comments “devastating” and “off the scale,” adding: “I think that when you say things like that, you have to pay a price.”
He said his group planned to return an unspecified amount of donations it had received from Sterling.
But Jenkins said he would not demand that Sterling return the “humanitarian award” the group gave him in 2009.
“This is not a Heisman Trophy, dude,” Jenkins said.
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