When I was growing up I was told to treat everyone with respect, I was taught “The Golden Rule” was the most important rule in the house, and I was taught to just generally be a nice guy to everyone I meet. I like to live by these rules in my daily life. When I walk away from meeting someone I want them to walk away thinking, “man, he’s a pretty nice guy.”
That’s it. That’s all I want. I want to be nice, help people, make them laugh, and try to leave them in a better mood than when I showed up.
I can be a little sarcastic sometimes and make fun of people, but never in a malicious way. It’s always meant either in good fun, or to point out a flaw in someone’s character that I think they should address in their own life without coming on too strong. My intention is almost always to help, never to hurt. That’s why I have such a ridiculously hard time believing that there are any kind of men in the world that would do the kinds of things that Terdema Ussery and so many other men, do to the women that work beneath them.
It’s an incredibly disturbing realization that there are people so deprived, narcissistic, and sociopathic that they really think they can just say and do the kinds of grotesque things that these men do. The worst part is the fact that they think they can get away with it without any kind of reprimand and—well—it’s because for the most part they usually do. These rich, powerful men think that they’re so “badass” they can just force themselves on people, wield their “power” over them, and there isn’t a damned thing the victims can do about it because, well, they’re in charge.
It’s time for that to end. I’m not just talking about hashtags and social media campaigns either. I do think that the #MeToo and #Timesup campaigns have actually done a great job of bringing sexual abuse and misconduct to light, but I still feel like more needs to be done.
It’s time for ACTING, not just REACTING.
This is where the sports world and Hollywood are getting this wrong. It’s where Mark Cuban is wrong in this entire disgusting debacle. We need men and women in power to start acting out on those who sexually abuse and harass people. It’s time for actions other than forced apologies to be taken against these people; actions that will actually change the cultures that have been fostered in these corporate environments.
I grew up in Dallas. I am as die-hard of a Mavericks fan as anyone. I cried angry tears in 2006 and I cried happy tears in 2011. Dirk Nowitzki is the Basketball God that was sent from the Courtly Heavens to save the world. I am a “MFFL” through and through, so it’s with great disappointment that say these next few words— Mark Cuban should be forced to sell the Dallas Mavericks.
Maybe I’m just jaded by a world rife with men and role models who continue to disappoint me, but I just don’t believe that an owner as “hands on” as Mark Cuban had NO CLUE what was going on behind Dallas’ corporate doors.
He can say he deferred to other people as many times as he wants, and maybe I would believe him if this was only going on over a two to three year period, but this happened for almost 20 YEARS. There is no way Cuban can convince me he that he never saw, heard, witnessed any kind of indecent behavior from Ussery in the 15 years they worked together after he became the Mavericks owner.
At some point people always show who they really are. They show their true selves, especially when they’re as predatory and disturbed as someone like Ussery. So I’m fairly certain that at some point Cuban saw who the real Terdema Ussery was and decided to look the other way. Maybe he looked the other way because he valued Ussery as a friend, but I know I could never respect anyone like that, so it’s hard for me to believe Cuban would be “cool with it” just because of friendship.
No, to me the only logical reason why Ussery was never fired by Cuban was because of the amount of money he was bringing into the business. And just like that, it all comes down to money. Again.
Everything comes down to money and power for people like this. They decide that human lives and mental states aren’t worth the amount of money they stand to lose for exposing the disgusting people that work for them. That HAS to change.
I want to believe Mark Cuban, I really do. The problem is that I just don’t. All of my logic, and minuscule brain power, tells me that Cuban knew what was happening in his organization and just decided to let it slide.
To me this is every bit as bad as Donald Sterling displaying overtly, and widlly racist behavior. Deciding to be complicit in the sexual harassment and abuse of a multitude of employees is completely deserving of losing his franchise. An example has to be made and at the end of the day Mark Cuban was in charge and didn’t protect the well-being of those who were hired to keep his business alive. The only way to really CHANGE a culture, is to make examples of what not to do.
ACT, NOT REACT.
It’s what Mark Cuban should have done in the first place.
