Methinks Thou Doest Protest Too Much

Something like that cometh from Hamlet, via the pen of William Shakespeare. But it has literally inundated us since.

The current deluge followed the outing of NBA team owner Donald Sterling. In a private conversation with his girl friend, Sterling made it perfectly clear that he did not want to have a public, personal, social relationship with dark skinned persons. And that he was asking the same of his girl friend.

The deluge was from everyone with a platform, denouncing Sterling's comments as outrageous, hateful, disgusting, etc. The vast majority of them have, indeed, protested too much.

There is no evidence that Sterling discriminated against blacks in the matter of employment. In fact, the NAACP was about to award him with recognition for generosity to the black community. Now, it seems. the NAACP has withdrawn their offer of recognition, admitting it was all about the money. But, have they returned the money?

As basketball great Kareem Abdul Jabbar said, it was disgraceful for the girlfriend to purposefully make public that personal conversation. Listening to it made him feel like an accomplice to a crime.

Sterling is being punished severely for remarks made in confidentiality. Of all those persons using their megaphone to denounce Sterling, I wonder how many have close, personal relationships with dark-skinned people? How many white men would share their girlfriend's time with a black man?

Or, to put the shoe on the other foot, how many black men would wish to share their lover with a white man?

Donald Sterling has been generous with his money, but has offered little to admire character-wise. Yet, as Christ commanded in John 8:7, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." In this case, at him! Be honest. Have you never privately disparaged someone with words you would not use in public?