Thank You Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban, the maverick entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks stirred up controversy among media dopes by...telling the stark truth, that EVERYONE harbors some petty bigotries and prejudices.

Cuban has said before that he worries about an ominous precedent that could be set by the NBA’s removing lowlife owner Donald Sterling.

The Mavericks owner tackled the subject in an interview with Inc.’s Maria Aspen at the conference:

"In this day and age, this country has really come a long way putting any type of bigotry behind us, regardless of who it's towards - whether it's the LGBT community, whether it's xenophobia, fear of people from other countries - we've come a long way. And with that progress comes a price. We're a lot more vigilant in what we ... and we're a lot less tolerant of different views. And it's not necessarily easy for everybody to adopt or adapt or evolve. We're all prejudiced in one way or the other. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face - white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere - I'm walking back to the other side of the street. And the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of.

And so in my businesses, try not to be hypocritical. I know that I'm not perfect. I know that I live in a glass house and it's not appropriate for me to throw stones. And so when I run into bigotry in organizations I control, I try to find solutions. I'll work with people. I'll send them to training, I'll send them to sensitivity training. I'll try to give them a chance to improve themselves. Because I think improving, helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear they may not understand and helping people realize that while we all have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it's an issue that we have to control - that it's part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it, not just to kick the problem down the road. Because it does my company no good, it does my customers no good, it does society no good if my response to somebody in their racism or bigotry is to say, 'It's not right for you to be here, go take your attitude somewhere else.'”

100% right on ALL counts! And anyone who doesn't give a hearty “harrumph” to those sentiments should be suspected of being a thought-nazi.