“Indeed, Levenson tried in 2011 to dump the Hawks, who are weighted down, as he pointed out in his infamous memo, by a heavily black fan base that, he was so insensitive as to notice, tends to arrive late for games, is too cool to cheer for the home team, can’t afford to spend much on season tickets or merchandise, doesn’t bring their sons often, and makes wealthier white fans feel out of place and unwanted at home games, especially in the arena’s lucrative bars. (…)
“The truly important lesson from the Levenson affair, however, is that you can’t put anything honest in writing anymore. At some point in the future it may come back to ruin your career. (…)
“From 1992 onward, the federal government waged a jihad against any mortgage lender who worried that blacks and Hispanics were less likely to pay back their debts. Over time, the more skeptical lenders exited the industry, leaving a culture dominated by true believers in the profit potential of the war on racist redlining, like Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide and Kerry Killinger of Washington Mutual.
“Inevitably, it turned out that when everything fell apart in 2008, blacks and Hispanics defaulted at strikingly high rates. Yet the reality of how the cult of diversity helped tank the economy just six years ago remains, at best, murky in public and pundit mind alike.”
