By David Suissa

My mind is spinning from watching the horror show of Donald Sterling and his racist rants. In case you’ve been on Mars during the past few days, Sterling is the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers who got caught on a recording spewing racist bile to his girlfriend, telling her, among other things, not to bring “black people” to his games.

In the recording, which Sterling has not repudiated, he can be heard asking his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, not to post pictures of herself with black people on her Instagram account. When Stiviano challenges his racist views, he answers: “I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them?”

The immediate, widespread condemnation, including even a reprimand from President Obama in Malaysia, made me realize how far we’ve come. It’s not simply that bigotry of any kind has become so frowned upon. It’s also the new media environment we live in.

Put it this way: If you want to be a racist today, you better keep it to yourself. We can’t legislate decency, but we can shame bigotry like never before. In a digital world where millions of sound bites can spread in seconds and never go away, unleash your bigoted impulses and watch your legacy go down in shame.

When Donald Sterling’s great-great-grandchildren Google his name 100 years from now, the first thing they’ll see is that their famous ancestor was famous for being a racist. They’ll learn that he was sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent to minority tenants, and that the bigoted rants revealed in April 2014 were only the latest in a long pattern of racist behavior.

They may also learn that he grew up in Boyle Heights and saw his father wake up every morning at 2 a.m. to buy produce and resell it to local restaurants. And that he picked up his father’s strong work ethic to work his way through law school, and when the big firms did not hire Jews at the time, started a thriving practice to help everyday people get legal assistance.

They may learn all that, but in the end, it is the bigotry and racism that will stick.

His descendants may also learn that Donald changed his last name from Tokowitz to Sterling to give himself an aura of success. The name Tokowitz, apparently, sounded too Jewish.

I guess you can say that his name change was good for the Jews.

Can you imagine the anti-Semitism that would have been rekindled today had it been billionaire Donald Tokowitz spewing these racist rants? Not that people can’t do quick research and figure out that Sterling is Jewish, but in our Twitter-dominated world, “Tokowitz the racist” is exponentially worse for the Jews than “Sterling the racist.”

How’s that for delicious irony? By selfishly worrying about his own reputation, he ended up protecting – somewhat – his own people’s reputation.

We can only wish that Bernie Madoff had done the same and changed his name to Bernie Madsen.

There is something pathetic about a wealthy old man caught in the vise of bigotry. Of all that I’ve read about this saga, maybe the saddest is that Sterling doesn’t have any tenants in his Beverly Hills office building. Apparently, that’s so he can ride up in his gold-plated elevator alone. God forbid he should come into contact with ordinary people.

It makes you wonder: Was there anyone he respected in his inner circle who could confront him? Or did they all laugh at his jokes, funny or not, as cronies are wont to do?

Beyond the issue of Sterling’s personal failings, there is also the hypocrisy of those who have enabled his behavior – groups like the National Basketball Association, which claims to have high ethical standards but failed repeatedly over 30 years to reprimand his conduct.

Another group that comes to mind is the NAACP, which gave Sterling a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 – the same year he paid out a record $2.75 million to settle allegations of discrimination against minority tenants – and recently announced that it planned to give him another award at its 100th anniversary gala in May.

Of course, after this latest bigot eruption, complete with smoking gun, the NAACP’s leaders have seen the light and announced they will not honor Sterling in May and are taking steps “to rescind the previous award they bestowed on him.”

Sorry – nice try, but too little, too late.

It’s no secret around town that organizations desperate for donations have been honoring Sterling and his wealthy connections for years while closing their eyes to his racist indiscretions. All these groups were playing with fire, but the NAACP, for obvious reasons, should have been extra careful not to associate with someone with such a shady record in race relations.

If the NAACP is looking for someone to honor at their May event, I have an idea for them: Honor the Jews who helped start the NAACP a hundred years ago – names like Julius Rosenthal, Henry Malkewitz, Lillian Wald and Rabbis S. Stephen Wise and Emil Hirsh.

Those Jews never felt a need to make their names sound less Jewish. They didn’t have to – they had nothing to hide.

The memory of these people may not raise as much money or sell as many tables as a billionaire slumlord, but their great-great-grandchildren will be a lot more proud of them when they Google their names.

David Suissa is a branding consultant, weekly columnist and the founder of OLAM magazine. This article first appeared in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.