Syndicated columnist Roland Martin says that the United States has made great strides in fighting racial prejudice, but that it still glaringly exists, as evidenced by the racially tinged statements of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
"It's undeniable that we have come a long way, but if you read Dr. [Martin Luther] King's book 'Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?' . . . he said, the next thing is what's going to be the most difficult thing," Martin told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"He wrote in 1967 that it didn't cost America much to integrate schools and pools . . . He said the next issue [is] how do we change the hearts and minds of people. He said that's going to be the hardest task of America," Martin said Tuesday.
The National Basketball Association on Tuesday banned Sterling for life after a taped conversation emerged in which the billionaire businessman was heard telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to Clippers' games.
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Martin, host and editor of "NewsOneNow" on TV One, said that Sterling and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who reportedly wondered whether blacks weren't better off as slaves, show that racism lives.
"It's not like it is totally gone away, somehow it's not there. You can go to the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] website right now and see the litany of racial discrimination lawsuits that have been settled and filed,'' he said.
"It's still there when you talk about discipline in school, when you talk about things along those lines, racial disparity when it comes to health, it's still there.
"We have come a long way but we also have a long way to go. Part of the problem is when people act as if, oh, everything has been fixed, it's all good, everything is straight, without realizing that, no, it's not quite the case.''
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