Where Is The Middle Ground?

Recently Clippers own­er Donald Sterling made some rather offen­sive and nean­derthal com­ments in a tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion with a young lady said to be his for­mer girl­friend. Sterling was unaware he was being record­ed, the com­ments attrib­uted to him were prob­a­bly the best indi­ca­tion of his feel­ings for African-Americans. The National Basket-Ball Association, through it’s Commissioner, act­ed swift­ly to ban Sterling from the game for life, and is active­ly tak­ing steps to force mis­ter Sterling to sell his stake in the Team which he owns with his estranged wife.

This is not the first time we have seen where racist com­ments have evoked swift respons­es . Donald Imus “nap­py head­ed hoes” com­ment cost him his job. Rick Santorum “bla peo­ple” com­ment may have done him in 2012. Former Virginia Senator George Allen may have had his Presidential aspi­ra­tions cur­tailed by his “Macaca“comment while on the stump. There are no short­age of instances where it has become clear that cer­tain lan­guage will no longer be tol­er­at­ed against others.

Reggae acts are no strangers to this kind of sanc­tion the lat­est being Queen Ifrica, a tal­ent­ed Artiste.

Queen Ifrica, 39, whose giv­en name is Ventrice Morgan, is known for her stri­dent lyrics, includ­ing Keep It To Yourself, Daddy and Times Like These. The Rastafari enter­tainer expressed her dis­ap­proval of the homo­sex­ual lifestyle at last year’s Independence Grand Gala cel­e­bra­tions in August which prompt­ed cul­ture min­is­ter Lisa Hanna to express regret at the utter­ances. In her response, Ifrica’s man­age­ment team released a state­ment which, in part, read: “Queen Ifrica express­es that, while she remains ground­ed in her morals which espous­es het­ero­sex­u­al­ity, she wants to make it abun­dantly and emphat­i­cally clear that she does not con­done nor has ever sup­ported or advo­cated vio­lence against any group or com­mu­nity, whether implic­itly or explic­it­ly.”.http://​www​.jamaicaob​server​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​G​a​y​s​— b​l​o​c​k​— Q​u​e​e​n​— I​f​r​i​c​a​— _16735516

Ifrica was pulled as head­liner at Amazura Concert Hall in Queens, New York, on May 24^th due to mount­ing pres­sure from the gay com­mu­nity. Six oth­er Jamaican female acts are also booked to per­form. A 200-​strong protest was held out­side the club. The organ­is­ers called for a halt of the ‘Invasion of the Queens’ show, which they said con­tributes to vio­lence against les­bians, gays, bi-​sex­u­als and trans­gen­ders. According the New York Daily News, the protest is being led by open­ly gay City Councilman Daniel Dromm. “We don’t need homo­pho­bic peo­ple like her com­ing to Queens to spread their mes­sage of hate,” he was quot­ed as saying. 

As we move to remove hatred and big­otry from our nation­al dis­course and ulti­mate­ly our lives, do we give up our right of dis­sent? Are we big­ots to be ostra­cized because we do not agree with some­one else? Should Donald Sterling be forced out of the NBA because of his com­ments or should the League insti­tute a pun­ish­ment which includes tol­er­ance train­ing as sug­gest­ed by Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban? Do we give up our God giv­en right to free speech in order to get along?

In the end, what about for­give­ness and redemp­tion? What about sec­ond chances, are we so wound­ed and scarred that it has become one and done? What would Jesus do? He would be for­giv­ing ! He would not ostra­cize Donald Sterling ‚nei­ther would he sup­port killing the career of Ventrice Morgan sim­ply because she dared to dissent.