Mark Cuban Admits He’s Prejudiced, Apologizes to Trayvon Martin’s Family For ‘Black kid in a hoodie’ Remark

family, and I apologize to them for that. Beyond apologizing to the Martin family, I stand by the words and the substance of the interview. I think that helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear or not understand, and helping people realize that while we all may 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.?

Here’s the full transcript of his entire speech:

In this day and age, this country has really come a long way, putting any type of bigotry behind us, regardless of who it’s towards — whether it’s the LGBT community, whether it’s xenophobia, fear of people from different countries — we’ve come a long way. And with that progress comes a price, where we’re a lot more vigilant in what what we, and a lot less tolerant, of different views. And it’s not easy for everyone to adopt (those views) or adapt, or evolve.

We’re all prejudice in one way or another. If I see a black kid in a hoodie, and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. If on that side of the street there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking back to the other side of the street.

And the list goes on, of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of. And, so, in my businesses, (I) try not to be hypocritical. I know that I’m not perfect. I know that I live in a glass house and it’s not appropriate for me to throw stones.

And so when I run into bigotry — in organizations I control — I try to find solutions. I’ll work with people. I’ll send them to training, I’ll send them to sensitivity training. I’ll try to give them a chance to improve themselves because I think helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear or may not understand, and helping people realize that while we all have our prejudices and bigotries … We have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control. It’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it, not just to kick the problem down the road.

It does my company no good, does my customers no good, does society no good if my response to somebody in their racism or their bigotry is to say ‘It’s not right for you to be here. Go take your attitude somewhere else.’

Do you find Cuban’s offensive or brutally honest? [Inc.]
Follow me: @theJasmineBRAND on Twitter | theJasmineBRAND on Facebook | theJasmineBRAND on Instagram