Mavericks owner Mark Cuban: ‘Being white, race and understanding race is something new’

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was absolutely correct when he said white people must acknowledge white privilege.

One example of white privilege? Ignoring race. Race affects the entire country. But white is treated as “normal” in the United States, which brings significant comfort for white people, including allowing them to ignore race (which even further preserves the status quo). Black people are too often forced to confront being “different” and everything that goes with that.

NBA:

“This is an inflection point and an opportunity for real change.” @DallasMavs' Mark Cuban (@mcuban) on his motivation to listen, learn, and take action in confronting systemic racism. #NBAVoices pic.twitter.com/Ojfx01OH91

— NBA (@NBA) June 26, 2020

Cuban:

Learning is an ongoing process, particularly learning about things that are new to you and different to you. And being white, race and understanding race is something new. It’s becoming very clear that, for this country, for the world, there’s a unique opportunity for this to be an inflection point for real change. And I think that’s really what’s propelled me to try to learn as much, speak as much, participate as much as I can.

We can all always learn more. I applaud anyone doing that. I really don’t want to admonish people for not knowing even basic elements of the situation earlier if they’re trying to expand their worldview now. Better late than never. Really, truly, I really don’t want to scold those people. But sometimes, it’s hard.

Cuban is 61 years old.

SIX YEARS AGO, he said he needed to be leader on addressing bigotry.

What has he been doing all this time?

I’m just going to go back to appreciating the progress being made, including Cuban donating $100,000 to the National Association of Black Journalists.