Billionaire entrepreneur and tech guru Mark Cuban is under fire for comments he made at a conference Wednesday, in which he admitted to being prejudiced and bigoted, but noted that “none of us have pure thoughts.”
Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and “Shark Tank” investor, addressed a bevy of topics from his successful career as an entrepreneur to the National Basketball Association at this week’s GrowCo conference in Nashville, Tenn. The outspoken billionaire took the stage to a standing ovation, but warned attendees he was prepared to go “full Mark Cuban.”
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Now, the outspoken billionaire is fending off criticism for comments he made about Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and bigotry.
“I know I’m prejudiced and I know I’m bigoted in a lot of different ways,” he said, according to The Tennessean. “If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I’ll move to the other side of the street. If I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoos, I’ll move back to the other side of the street. None of us have pure thoughts; we all live in glass houses.”
Some on Twitter argue Cuban was making a derogatory reference to Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Sanford, Fla., teen who was shot and killed in 2012, while others are praising the entrepreneur for his honesty.
The Mavericks owner made similar statements in an interview with Inc. magazine, which hosted GrowCo.
“We’re all prejudiced in one way or the other,” he said.
In his candid interview with Inc., Cuban praised the country for coming a “long way, putting any type of bigotry behind us, regardless of who it’s toward…”
And while he recognized that he has his own prejudices — as everyone does — Cuban said it’s important for him as an entrepreneur to help himself and others look past those bigotries.
“I know that I’m not perfect,” he said. “While we all have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it, not just to kick the problem down the road.”
Cuban joined a chorus of NBA players and owners last month in speaking out against the racist comments Sterling said. The Mavericks head condemned the owner’s remarks and called them “abhorrent” and “obviously racist.”
Cuban originally said the NBA’s decision to force Sterling to sell the Clippers would be a “slippery slope,” but declined to say whether or not he would vote to remove Sterling when team owners convene in June.
