Cuban: I’d cross the street to get away from a black kid in a hoodie

Photo: Reuters

Mark Cuban won’t shy away from the NBA’s most controversial subject.

The unfiltered Mavericks owner said he could see himself as a hypocrite if he votes in favor of Donald Sterling’s lifetime ban because he believes that he — everyone, really — is bigoted or prejudiced in some way, and he invoked the example of “a black kid in a hoodie” to try to make his point.

“I know I’m prejudiced. I know I’m bigoted in a lot of different ways,” he said in the interview with Inc. at their GrowCo business conference Wednesday in Nashville. “I’ve said this before: If I see a black kid in a hoodie at night on the same side of the street, I’m probably going to walk to the other side of the street. If I see a white guy with a shaved head and lots of tattoos, I’m going back to the other side of the street.

“If I see anybody that looks threatening, and I try not to, but part of me takes into account race and gender and image. I’m prejudiced. Other than for safety issues, I try to always catch my prejudices and be very self-aware.

“We’ve come a long way and with that progress comes a price. We’re a lot more vigilant and a lot less tolerant of different views, and it’s not necessarily easy for everybody to adopt or adapt or evolve. We’re all prejudiced in one way or another.”

Usually, Cuban said, people are wise enough not to say it aloud.

“There are no laws against stupid,” said Cuban regarding Sterling’s racist comments. “I learned a long time ago that you can’t talk stupid out of people. You can’t expect stupid to disappear.”

Cuban remarked that battling internal prejudices is something everyone deals with because “none of us have complete pure thoughts.”

And though he backs Commissioner Adam Silver’s decision to urge NBA owners toremove the Clippers owner with a three-quarters vote — “There is a lot at stake as a whole for the NBA as a business” — Cuban hinted he would feel guilty about voting to banish Sterling.

“The thing that scares me about this whole thing is I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” Cuban said. “And I think I might have to be.
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