I don't know anything about his then girlfriend (the one in the recording, apparently V. Stiviano) as TMZ describes http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/26/donald-sterling-girlfriend-v-stiviano-photos/.
Sterling's wife of 50 years has called her a gold digger and has sued her alleging she embezzled 1.8M from the Sterlings and alleging she would "get even" for the lawsuit. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sterlings-wife-describes-girlfriend-as-gold-digger-in-lawsuit-20140426,0,4883913.story#axzz303zH9xK4
Apparently her Instagram was private before this situation and is now public gaining her 10K new followers. http://www.examiner.com/article/v-stiviano-instagram-page-goes-public-gains-nearly-10k-followers-hours
As another poster said Sterling has had an issue with Hispanics and African-Americans as accounted on Wikipedia. A lawsuit alleges that Sterling refused to rent to non-Koreans in Koreatown and to African Americans in Beverly Hills. Sterling once said he did not like to rent to "Hispanics" because, "Hispanics smoke, drink and just hang around the building." Sterling also allegedly said, "Black tenants smell and attract vermin."
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/13/sports/sp-plaschke-clippers13
"In November 2009, Sterling agreed to pay $2.73 million to settle allegations by the Justice Department that he refused to rent apartments to Hispanics and blacks and to families with children. In March 2011, Sterling won a lawsuit filed by Elgin Baylor, the team’s former general manager, when a jury rejected his claim of wrongful termination and age discrimination."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/04/26/clippers-owner-donald-sterling-tells-girlfriend-not-to-bring-black-people-to-games-disses-magic-johnson/
According to testimony given by property manager Summer Davenport:
"Cultivating his image, Davenport said, meant no Blacks, no Mexican-Americans, no children (whom Sterling called "brats") and no government-housing-subsidy recipients as tenants. So according to the testimony of tenants, Sterling employees made life difficult for residents in some of his new buildings. They refused rent checks, then accused renters of nonpayment. They refused to do repairs for black tenants and harassed them with surprise inspections, threatening residents with eviction for alleged violations of building rules." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/etan-thomas/donald-sterling-has-been_b_5219475.html
Maybe I'm naive I don't know, but I think this could be construed a few ways. 1. Sterling is a racist. 2. Stiviano is a gold digger who saw the gravy train leaving the station and hoped for one last large cash grab selling the tape and one last opportunity to gain notoriety and possibly revenge for him dumping her. 3. Both 1. and 2. are in play. What I believe to be true is that Sterling is a bigot. Yet, I truly believe he does not harbour hate toward any persons of other races (as he states multiple times in the recording), he is just ignorant. He has old views of minorities, ones that he likely grew up with. The civil rights movement and the fight to end segregation happened while he was in his 20s. He grew up in a culture where you did not associate with people of other races and was probably taught that black people hated white people. The whole apartment issue comes across as him believing Hispanics, African-Americans and families were problem tenants based on ignorant beliefs. It seems to be that he believes Hispanics and African-Americans to be low class or ill-mannered. He had no issues renting to persons of a Korean background for whatever reason (maybe he stereotyped them as upstanding citizens). This whole conversation seems off, as if there is an unspoken underlying issue. Again, maybe Stiviano saw the writing on the wall that the relationship was ending and tried to get him to say something racist in order to sell a story. That's not to say Sterling is completely off the hook. He has done some allegedly despicable things himself. Both parties involved seem like despicable human beings.
Finally, we should all know not to trust TMZ. they threw Colin Kaepernick's reputation (and contract negotiations) under the bus insinuating he was a rapist when no charges we're laid against him based on a flimsy story. They don't have a lick of integrity as far as I'm concerned.