DeMaurice Smith, NFL Players Association chief, urged the league to nix Rush Limbaugh's participation in a consortium to buy the St Louis Rams.

Buying Al Sharpton's hype that Limbaugh is a racist, Smith whined that football is at its best "when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred."

But who are the discriminators and haters here?

Sharpton blocked Limbaugh like Governor Orval Faubus tried to block black children from entering Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.

Limbaugh can't make an investment because some don't like him? Based on something he did?

No, based on who they allege he is.

Once blacks could not live as equals in America because of their race. Because of bigotry, they could not freely mix in society at large, buy a house, get a loan, or vote.

Dr. King led a movement whose goal was supposedly that the ideals and laws of a free society apply to all.

That a person's humanity and God given rights are generic and cannot be denied because of myth, slander, or innuendo about whom they supposedly are.

Unfortunately, these are not the ideals of the race entrepreneurs who took over this movement and who refuse to recognize its completion because it would put them out of business.

We see today that if Al Sharpton does not like a man, and he pulls circumstantial evidence to claim he is a racist, he can get that man's rights to freely operate and do business in our society abrogated. It is a process no different from the past in which racists produced "information" that "proved" that blacks were inferior and incapable of living as free and equal citizens.

But give credit where it's due. Sharpton is a skilled entrepreneur and knows how to get his business done.

What is pathetic is the gutless, ill informed and misguided businessmen and businesswomen, from all walks of American life, who are ready to cave to race blackmail at the drop of a hat.

Like racists of the past who bought bigoted claims about blacks to rationalize their racism, so NFL team owners showed zero interest in investigating claims and allegations made about Limbaugh.

There was zero interest in the fact that Limbaugh never made most of the provocative statements attributed to him. Zero interest in investigating if the few remarks that Rush did indeed make that might be construed as incendiary were indicative that he is racist. And no interest to see if Limbaugh actually ever did anything that might be considered discriminatory.

Captains of American industry - multimillionaires and billionaires who own NFL franchises - acted with the greatest of ease to discriminate against Limbaugh based only on allegations from those who hate him.

One of the owners vocal against Limbaugh was Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons.

Blank is a billionaire who co-founded Home Depot.

Blank's family foundation makes contributions to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood was founded by eugenicist and racist Margaret Sanger and is the No. 1 killer of unborn black children in the nation. A few years ago Planned Parenthood workers were recorded agreeing to earmark someone's contributions for only black abortions.

In my view, Blank's support of Planned Parenthood is infinitely more damaging to America's black community than any off-handed remark made by Rush Limbaugh. Should Blank be forced to divest his ownership in the Falcons?

American businessmen should be the first defenders of the principles of our free society. Sadly, few even seem to know what they are, let alone defend them.

America's largest corporations funnel millions every year to Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and black left-wing organizations that promote moral relativism and socialism.

Its no wonder that so many Americans sense today that American greatness is becoming a relic of history.

Star Parker is president of CURE, Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (www.urbancure.org).