President Obama Weighs In On Donald Sterling’s Racist Remarks

Everyone is outraged by Donald Sterling’s racist rant, including President Barack Obama. The POTUS shared his thoughts on the newly-released audio tape during press conference overseas today, and he described it as “incredibly offensive.”

“When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything. You just let them talk. That’s what happened here,” the commander in chief told reporters in Malaysia during his diplomatic mission.

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“The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation,” he added. “That’s still there, the vestiges of discrimination. We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often.”

He went on to say “we’ve made enormous strides” as a nation, but the words of the Donald Sterling prove that we still have a long way to go. “You’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often,” he continued. “And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why statements like this stand out some much is because there has been this shift in how we view ourselves.”

Obama concluded his remarks by saying he’s confident NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will do the right thing. The league has “an awful lot of African American players, it’s steeped in African American culture. And I suspect that the NBA is going to be deeply concerned in resolving this,” he said.

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As we reported earlier, TMZ obtained an audio clip of the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner forbidding his biracial girlfriend from publicly associating with Black people. His racist remarks, which went on for nearly 10 minutes, started after she posted an Instagram photo of herself with Magic Johnson.

TMZ released more of the disturbing audio toady. Take a listen below.