Recently, there has been a heated discussion upon Donald Sterling’s leaked recording from September 2013, in which he made a derogatory comment towards the black community. The leaked recording played back a man, confirmed as Sterling, where he was conversing with a female friend, Vivano Stiviano, on Stiviano’s Instagram post of her posing with Magic Johnson. Sterling told Stiviano:

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. You can sleep with black people. You can bring them in; you can do whatever you want. But the little I ask you is … not to bring them to my games.”

The comment has cost Sterling to sell his Clipper’s basketball team, rescinded “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and banned from the league for life along with $2.5 million fine.

This leaked audio has sparked many famous celebrities to comment on the leaked audio with a negative reaction. Some of the famous celebrities including rapper Snoop Dogg made their own reaction with a video calling Sterling, “B*tch – *** redneck, white bread, chicken s**t mother f***er.”

I do agree that Sterling’s comment was in fact deemed wrong as racism inhibits social progress and discriminates one another based on false accusations. However, another problem lies with fighting racism with racist remarks as demonstrated in Snoop Dogg’s response video to Sterling’s statement. This is a double standard and it is morally unfair and unjustified. In essence, double standards used in racism are just as bad as making a racist remark.

Upon noticing the remarks Snoop Dogg has made in response to Sterling, it has come to my attention that I am guilty of this, as I have been called out many times before for my ethnicity. People hit me with racist remarks for being Asian and I would often hit them back with another aimed towards them. It is a reflex and habit out of being called out on my race living in a Hispanic community.

As the years pass by though, the stereotypes and tension dies down as we learn that these remarks are not applicable to everyone in just one specific group. Soon we all learn to accept each other as individuals rather than just an ethnicity once we learn that there are more similarities than differences amongst each other.

History shows that racism towards the colored people was wrongful and unjust and then the colored people followed with hitting back the white community with racist remarks of their own. It is similar to the biblical reference of “An eye for an eye,” but as Ghandi stated, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” This statement could not be any more applicable to this problem as we are tearing each other apart and are distracted from even more critical and life-threatening problems. The problem isn’t held accountable between the white and black community, but to everyone.

For the majority of us, it makes us feel better to put others down, as you may “feel” superior to them. But it takes much more to be the better person to disregard their racist remarks and move on. This is how social progress is made.