By Mark S. Golub

Marc Golub

The disdain and condemnation with which virtually all of America has responded to the racism expressed by NBA owner Donald Sterling reflect the extent to which anti-African-American sentiment and behavior is an anathema to the overwhelming majority of Americans.  There is something very affirming about the nation’s unqualified rejection of Mr. Sterling.

But there has been one disturbing by-product which should not go unnoticed.

In reporting on a story which, at its core, is a critique of racism and bigotry, a number of television commentators have gone out of their way to mention that Mr. Sterling is a Jew, a gratuitous and therefore anti-Semitic racist remark.

CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll pointed out that Sterling is the son of Jewish immigrants – a fact wholly irrelevant to the story.  In contrast, when reporting on racist remarks by Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, CNN never felt Mr. Bundy’s ethnic or religious identities were essential to the story.

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart highlighted the racist comments of both Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling – but then went on to observe that as racism has been resurrected in America it “quickly caught on with many Jews.”

Really! Donald Sterling’s comments reflect the fact that racism has “caught on with many Jews!” What evidence does Mr. Stewart have for this blatantly racist remark?

Nor was this the only reference to Sterling’s Jewish identity. The Daily Show’s Larry Wilmore, playing the role of “Senior Black Correspondent,” described Donald Sterling as “an old Jewish sports racist.”

For The Daily Show, Cliven Bundy’s defining quality is “libertarian cowboy;” no mention was made of his ethnic or religious identity. But Donald Sterling is not an “old sports racist;” he is an “old Jewish sports racist.”

At the end of Jon Stewart’s opening monologue, he makes the point that while we have taught Americans to reject racism, we have failed to teach Americans what racism is.

Ironically, in a program highlighting the insidious subtleties of racist tendencies, Jon Stewart revealed how some Americans have yet to learn what anti-Semitic racism really is.

Mark S. Golub is president and executive producer of Shalom TV and spiritual leader of Chavurat Aytz Chayim in Stamford. He has been named by Newsweek magazine as one of America’s most influential rabbis.