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It’s time for Donald Sterling to explain himself

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Dear Donald Sterling:

Tell me when and where, and I’ll come by for a chat. If the racist comments attributed to you by TMZ were actually made by someone else, here’s your chance to clear the record.

If your voice is the one we hear on the tape, but it’s been edited misleadingly or there’s some context for the comments that you’d like to explain, here’s your chance.

And if indeed that’s you and it’s really the way you think, might as well come clean now or this is going to drag on interminably. At the moment, you’re stealing some of the spotlight from Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher and reigning national buffoon who wondered if black people were “better off as slaves, picking cotton.”

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And that’s partly because this isn’t the first time you were accused of being a bigot, as you know.

Who can forget that you and your wife paid a record $2.7 million to settle a case in which you were accused of discriminating against minorities in your apartment buildings?

People are entitled, of course, to fill themselves with hate, and you’re no different in that regard. And to be honest, I don’t know many people who would feel comfortable having their presumably private conversations broadcast to the world.

But if you’re so uncomfortable around black people, has anyone suggested it might be a good idea to get out of the NBA, which is dominated by African Americans? What’s that about?

Is there just so much money in it, you’re willing to suffer through the indignity of allowing black players into the building?

And what’s with all the support for local charities and nonprofits, some of which benefit minorities?

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Is that just a cover, or penance for your sins?

Come on, Donald. Take a good look at my offer and let me know if you’d like to take me up on it. I’m not offering redemption.

There may be no such thing.

But silence, as they say, speaks volumes.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

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