New poem: STERLING BEHAVIOR.

Note: I have corrected a line about Bill Plaschke from an earlier version.
Apologies for faulty memory and insufficient fact checking.

What is it about people involved in sports
 and people who report about sports
 that cause them to occasionally
 blast the verbal flatulence
 of racist comments
 from their privileged mouths?
 >
 LA TIMES' Bill Plaschke muttering about
 seeing the Mexican flag waved
 and fans cheering against the U.S.
 at U.S./Mexico soccer games in Los Angeles.
 Jimmy The Greek spluttering on
 people's "breeding" habits.
 Al Campanis assuming African-Americans
 can't manage baseball teams.
 And, of course, Marge Schott.

 Now, Donald Sterling runs through
 a veritable Greatest Hits of Bigotry
 while lecturing his much younger female companion:
 "this race hates that race"
 "I don't want you to invite
 [famous non-Caucasian NBA star] to my team's games"
 "you can associate with [famous non-Caucasian NBA star]
 in private but not in public"
 and the now rising-on-the-charts
 "if I catch you taking an Instagram with....
 [non-Caucasian person, perhaps a famous NBA
 star, of the opposite sex]"
 >
 Unfortunately, this behavior
 will happen again.
 All one can hope for
 is the chorus of disapproval
 growing in decibel size
 after every profoundly offensive statement
 uttered by the prejudiced sportsperson
 living under the delusion
 that his-or-her hatred
 reflects "the real world."

LA TIMES sports crank Bill Plaschke on Lindsey Jacobellis.

There's a lot of times I don't agree with veteran LOS ANGELES TIMES sportswriter Bill Plaschke (a rare instance of a column of his I liked was about the recent efforts to blame the young Georgian luge contestant for his tragic death), and this conniption fit about Lindsey Jacobellis (which comes down to Plaschke being miffed that Jacobellis, having lost a second chance at Olympic Gold, didn't want to meet the press IMMEDIATELY afterwards) is one of those times:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-olympics-plaschke17-2010feb17,0,2895259.column

Here's an especially barbed remark from Bill re Lindsey (highlighting by me):
"In its 12th year at the Olympics, snowboarding continues to grow in ways we never imagined. It is now officially a bratty kid who is convinced we will never understand it."Seriously, mainstream media just doesn't get it sometimes," said Nate Holland, another Olympic snowboard cross racer. "It's not always about winning. It's about fun, style, showing your stuff."But once every four years, the sport is put under a national spotlight and judged like all other American sports, by standings and a scoreboard. The boarders may not like that harsher glare, but they certainly don't have any trouble cashing checks from sponsors who do."