I wonder if the media will spin Bruce Levenson’s remarks as “Southern” rather than as Jewish, even though he embodies the attitudes of many Jews towards blacks.
I think Levenson’s remarks below make business sense, but they are impolitic to say in public. You can’t tell the truth publicly about these matters and retain an honored position in first world society. You can only retain honor in America and the West by keeping quiet on race or by lying about race. Those who tell the truth on race will be persecuted and driven from public life (a la Charles Murray with his book The Bell Curve).
Jews were disproportionately active in the struggle for black civil rights in America and in South Africa but Jews as a group have complicated reactions to blacks. In some ways, they act more fearful of blacks than do goyim, and Jews usually lead white flight.
When you have a luxury good such as an NBA team, it makes sense to market your product primarily to those who have large disposable incomes. This audience, in general, is not black or latino (in America because most American Latinos left Latin America because they weren’t smart enough to make it there, the USA got the dregs of Latin America).
In the US, you can’t criticize Jews as a group, so I don’t expect the news media to link Bruce Levenson’s remarks to common Jewish attitudes towards blacks (which often have more in common with Southern white attitudes than with PC attitudes).
When you play hip-hop music in your stadium, you attract blacks and non-blacks who like many black ways. When you play white music, you attract a different crowd and different behavior, as the Washington Post reported:
To many people, classical music is the perfect background music: soothing, attractive, undemanding. But for some time, it’s also been used as a form of crowd control: a kind of bug spray for people you don’t want hanging around. Early attempts in this direction date to the mid-1980s, when a 7-Eleven began playing music in the parking lot as a deterrent to the crowds of teenagers congregating there. Plenty of stores continue to use the technique, and other examples have been cropping up sporadically ever since. In 2001, police in West Palm Beach, Fla., blasted Mozart and Beethoven on a crime-ridden street corner and saw incidents dwindle dramatically. In 2010, the transit authority in Portland, Ore., began playing classical music at light-rail stops, and calls to police dropped. When the London Underground started piping classical music into its stations in 2005, physical and verbal abuse by young people (however you define THAT) declined by 33 percent.
Levenson noted in his email below that the largely black audience that comes to Atlanta Hawks games contains few fathers with sons. Blacks all over the world have less family stability than do whites who in turn have less than Orientals.
Levenson is also right that whites are not going to come to places where they are in the minority and where minority norms rule. Whites, like other groups, prefer to socialize with whites according to white norms.
Levenson wrote: “We manufacture a lot of noise but because of the late arriving crowd and the fact that a lot of blacks dont seem to go as crazy cheering (another one of my theories) as whites, it is not great.”
As Steve Sailer notes, American blacks tend to have a national tribal culture that supports national teams such as the Lakers and the Heat rather than the team in their city. Whites are more likely than blacks to go crazy for the team in their city just as whites are more likely than blacks to wave the American flag and to cry at the National Anthem and to visit places of historical significance in American history. For many blacks, America represents oppression and racism more than it represents freedom and democracy.
Levenson makes another obvious point in his email: “And many of our black fans don’t have the spendable income which explains why our f&b and merchandise sales are so low.”
I wonder if blacks tend to be tardy more often than whites? “Regardless of what time a game starts, we have the latest arriving crowd in the league. It often looks and sounds empty when the team takes the floor.”
Levenson wrote: “I want some white cheerleaders and while i don’t care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that’s our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.”
This seems like common sense and good business to me. I don’t feel safe when I am surrounded by black people. I suspect most non-blacks and many blacks identify with me. We don’t like hip hop culture.
Bunny James posts on my FB: “In America, David, his statements would be taken by blacks as EXTREMELY racist. You cannot say anything in this country that even hints there is a difference between people because of their ethnic origin. We have “solved” our racial problems in this country by agreeing to never talk about them. And yes, you’re correct, if the statement was reversed nobody would think anything of it. That’s just the reality of racial relations in the USA.”
I know that many Jewish businesses, such as Jewish bookstores and kosher restaurants, seek to attract Jewish customers. I suspect many black restaurants and clubs seek black customers and that many Chinese stores seek Chinese customers. What is wrong with whites seeking white customers? Why are whites the only group not allowed to act in their own interest?
It’s a shame that Levenson has now apologized for his remarks: “I’m angry at myself, too. It was inflammatory nonsense. We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race, but my role as a leader is to challenge them, not to validate or accommodate those who might hold them.”
What a coward. Read Tom Wolfe’s novels A Man in Full and The Bonfire of the Vanities to get an accurate taste of the complexity of Jewish attitudes to blacks.
Chaim Amalek writes: “When it comes down to dollars, Jews like this have no spine. They are nearly as bad as WASP elites in England. Consider that he SELF REPORTED his thought crime to the authorities, then volunteers for suitable punishment. With such people in positions of authority in America, is it any wonder we are in trouble? I say his punishment should be exile to Gaza for five years of political reeducation.”
I don’t think there’s anything weird about whites and Jews wanting to own NBA teams that mainly employee blacks but primarily attract white fans in the seats. All the world prefers white women, for instance, as the ultimate in beauty, even the Japanese. Every people has its own gifts.
REPORT: Atlanta Hawks controlling owner Bruce Levenson has self-reported to the NBA that he sent a racist e-mail in August 2012 and will sell his interest in the team.
Levenson reported the e-mail to the NBA in July, almost two years after it was sent but while the league was deep in litigation over the now-completed sale of the Los Angeles Clippers. The investigation was ongoing when Levenson decided to leave the team.
The e-mail, to Hawks President Danny Ferry, details Levenson’s belief that the Hawks’ fan base was too heavily African-American. (Scroll down for full text of the e-mail.)
“I wrote an e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive,” Levenson said in a Hawks news release Sunday morning. “I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e., hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e., that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans.”
Levenson was one of the strongest critics among owners of Donald Sterling, the Clippers owner who was recorded making racist comments and quickly banned for life from the league.
FULL TEXT OF THE E-MAIL (via the Hawks):
From: Bruce Levenson
Sent: 8/25/2012 11:47:02 PM
Subject: Re: Business/Game ops
1. from day one i have been impressed with the friendliness and professionalism of the arena staff — food vendors, ushers, ticket takers, etc. in our early years when i would bring folks from dc they were blown away by the contrast between abe pollin’s arena and philips. some of this is attributable to southern hospital and manners but bob and his staff do a good job of training. To this day, I can not get the ushers to call me Bruce yet they insist on me calling them by their first names.
2. the non-premium area food is better than most arenas, though that is not saying much. i think there is room for improvement and creativity. Levy is our food vendor so we don’t have much control but they have been good partners. i have wished we had some inconic offereing like boog’s barbeque at the baseball stadium in balt.
3. our new restaurant, red, just opened so too early for me to give you my thoughts.
4. Regarding game ops, i need to start with some background. for the first couple of years we owned the team, i didn’t much focus on game ops. then one day a light bulb went off. when digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can’t get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:
— it’s 70 pct black
— the cheerleaders are black
— the music is hip hop
— at the bars it’s 90 pct black
— there are few fathers and sons at the games
— we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.
Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.
Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba’s urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.
My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean back then. i never felt uncomfortable, but i think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.
I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don’t care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that’s our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.
Gradually things have changed. My unscientific guess is that our crowd is 40 pct black now, still four to five times all other teams. And my further guess is that 40 pct still feels like 70 pet to some whites at our games. Our bars are still overwhelmingly black.
This is obviously a sensitive topic, but sadly i think it is far and way the number one reason our season ticket base is so low.
And many of our black fans don’t have the spendable income which explains why our f&b and merchandise sales are so low. At all white thrasher games sales were nearly triple what they are at hawks games (the extra intermission explains some of that but not all).
Regardless of what time a game starts, we have the latest arriving crowd in the league. It often looks and sounds empty when the team takes the floor.
In the past two years, we have created a section of rowdy college students that has been a big plus. And we do a lot of very clever stuff during time outs to entertain the crowd. Our kiss cam is better done than any in the league.
We have all the same halftime acts that other arenas have but i question whether they make sense. people are on their cell phones during half time. i wonder if flashing on the scoreboard “$2 off on hot dogs during halftime tonight” just as the half ends would be a better use of our halftime dollars and make the fans happier.
We do all the usual giveways and the fans are usually their loudest when our spirit crew takes the floor to give away t-shirts. It pisses me off that they will yell louder for a t-shirt then for our players.
Our player intro is flat. We manufacture a lot of noise but because of the late arriving crowd and the fact that a lot of blacks dont seem to go as crazy cheering (another one of my theories) as whites, it is not great. Even when we have just returned from winnng four straight on the road, i am one of the few people in the arena standing and cheering when our team takes the floor. Bob has kicked around ideas like having the starters coming down aisles rather than off the bench during intros. Sounds cool but may highlight all the empty seats at the start of games.
Not enough of our fans wear hawks jerseys to games. i have just begun to push for ideas like discount food lines for folks wearing jerseys, special entrances, etc. I think we need a committed and perhaps incentivized fan club. We need to realize atl is simply different than every other city. Just adopting nba best practices is not enough. we have to create our own.
I am rambling and could probably go on forever. If you have any specific areas you would like my thoughts on, let me know.
Best,
Bruce
ps — I have cc’d todd and ed so they can chime in with additional or different thoughts.
Sent from my iPad
