Mark Cuban has taken a ton of heat for the remarks he made at a conference in Nashville this week about his personal prejudices. For the most part, the Dallas Mavericks owner has stood by his remarks and urged people to listen to the entire interview rather than analyzing snippets. But, on Thursday evening, Cuban decided to apologize to the family of Trayvon Martin.
One of the examples Cuban used about how he is “bigoted” in certain ways is that he would probably walk to the other side of the street if he saw a black kid wearing a hoodie late at night. He said he’d do the same if he saw a bald white guy covered in tattoos. As most of you know, a hoodie became a symbol for why Martin was shot and killed.
“In hindsight I should have used different examples,” Cuban wrote on Twitter. “I didn’t consider the Trayvon Martin family, and I apologize to them for that. Beyond apologizing to the Martin family, I stand by the words and substance of the interview.
“I think that helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear or may not understand, and helping people realize that while we all may have our prejudices and bigotries we have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it.”
You can read exchanges that Cuban had with a bunch of other people, including Jalen Rose and Bomani Jones, on his Twitter page.
Ultimately, many people are missing Cuban’s point. They’re focusing on the examples rather than the honesty and the message. Anyone who says they have never looked at someone and jumped to conclusions based on their appearance is lying. It’s simply human nature, and because of that we are all prejudiced in our own ways. Understanding that and making an effort to counter it — in your own mind — is important.
