BET Awards 2014: Chris Rock Mocks Donald Sterling With Slavery Joke (Video)

Chris Rock used his BET Awards opening monologue to mock the uproar over Donald Sterling‘s racist rant earlier this year.

“An 83-year-old white man doesn’t like black people. Is that news? Come on!” Rock said of the embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner. “A black man couldn’t look him in the eye until he was 45. The first black man he ever met, he got for Christmas.”

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He went on to say that though he wasn’t defending Sterling, he did think the owner had a point when he told his girlfriend V. Stiviano not to hang out with Magic Johnson and other African-American basketball players.

“What did he say? ‘I don’t want my woman around black basketball players.’ Me neither! Are you kidding me?” Rock said. “Who the hell wants their woman around black basketball players?”

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Rock also took jabs at Oprah Winfrey‘s role in Lee Daniels’ The Butler: “Oprah Winfrey should have gotten an Oscar. That acting job was amazing because she had to imagine she was poor.”

The comedian also attributed the success of ABC’s Scandal to the fact that it features a white president. “White people get to tune in and feel good. For one hour, it’s just back to normal.”

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See the BET Award-winners list here, which is being updated throughout the show.

The awards began under the shadow of violence, with one man shot to death and another stabbed in two separate preshow incidents. BET said the preshow parties at which the violence occurred were not officially affiliated with the awards show.

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