To those even casually familiar with Donald Sterling's controversial ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, his recorded remarks urging his mistress to not associate with black people were shocking, though not surprising. This is a man who paid $2.725 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit claiming he drove minorities out of apartments he owned, and who allegedly asked a prospective coach how he would deal with "these ni--ers." And that's just for starters.
Sterling is also an unrepentant sexist. A brief history of his attitude toward women:
* A former employee sued Sterling for sexual harassment, alleging that he ordered her to find him masseuses who "will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it."
* He hired "hostesses" to work parties, one of whom called it the most "demoralizing, dehumanizing experience of my life," and claimed she was asked to provide semi-nude photos.
* Sterling's own testimony from a lawsuit with a former mistress, to whom he paid $500 every time she "provided sex" for him: "When you pay a woman for sex, you are not together with her... "You're paying her for a few moments to use her body for sex. Is it clear?"
*From the same testimony: "I wouldn't have a child and certainly not with that piece of trash. Come on. This girl is the lowest form."
*And again, in the same testimony: "Every secretary is honey. I'm a flowery man. If you're having sex with a woman you're paying for, you always call her honey because you can't remember her name."
*From an extended audio recording obtained by Deadspin: "If my girl can't do what I want, I don't want the girl. I'll find a girl that will do what I want!"
Donald Sterling, ladies and gentlemen.