And, of course, the fact that they were made public.

One of the reasons activists try to make private things public is that they then become much harder to ignore.

There is a violation of privacy in those revelations, and there is an issue there.

Unfortunately, except perhaps in a legal proceeding, you can't make something private again once it's been made public.

Even if all parties agree that the act or words shouldn't have been made public, they are public now, and people can't decide to un-know them.

Marital cheating is meant to be private, but once it becomes known, it is very, very hard for the other spouse to trust the cheater again. Subsequent appearances and heartfelt claims of fidelity aren't entirely trusted because it was these very things that were used to hide the infidelity in the first instance.

And once the transgressions become known, the transgressed party feels like a fool unless he or she responds in a forceful way.

How were the Clipper players supposed to respond once Sterling's utter disdain for them was known to the world? Of course, Kareem has pointed out that Sterling's racism was well known before, and these now-outraged individuals were nowhere to be heard from, except for Mr. Baylor, perhaps. I don't know all the details, but he makes a very good point.

I guess this is the way change happens sometimes/often. How many black people, including Rosa Parks before she became "Rosa Parks" could have demanded they sit anywhere front of the back of the bus? A whole lot. But as I recall the story, she was tired that day and the bus was largely empty and, for whatever reason, she'd just had enough and something sparked.

Someone could have said--and perhaps did say at the time--"Why is Ms. Parks getting so upset now? What's the big deal now? She's been following the rules all her life and, presumably, content to do so. If she was so unhappy with the rules, why didn't she or millions of other blacks do something about it before?" And it doesn't entirely answer the question to point out the penalties blacks would have suffered for not following this rule. Of course. And there's fear and habit and all the rest at play. But on this particular occasion, Ms. Parks said, "To hell with the consequences. I'm a human being and I'm going to sit down here."