IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHO IS GORING THE OX

At a final-four postgame press conference, a Kentucky player directed a racial slur at a Wisconsin player

BaekGrowlBite | April 6, 2015

Even if you are not a basketball fan, unless you live under a rock, by now you know that Wisconsin trounced undefeated and heavily favored Kentucky in college basketball’s final-four playoff game on Saturday.

The Kentucky players were so pissed–off at the end of the game that they stormed off the court without shaking hands with the winning team. But the best was yet to come during a postgame press conference.

With several Kentucky players lined up at a table, a reporter asked a question about Wisconsin’s star white player Frank Kaminsky. Andrew Harrison, who is black and whose microphone was hot, was heard saying, “Fuck that nigger.”

That remark started a shitstorm of comments on social media, with most defending Harrison. And most sports reporters gave the racial slur a pass, saying that when blacks use the ‘N’ word, it does not have the same meaning as when whites use it.

Harrison made several apologies, including one to Kaminsky who believes the apology was sincere.

Just imagine what the reaction would have been if Kaminsky had directed that remark at Harrison. First of all, he would not have been allowed to play in the championship game against Duke. There would have been boisterous protest demonstrations on the Wisconsin campus. Then he would be expelled from the university with a blast from the university’s president. And he would have been so poisoned that no NBA team would ever pick him up.

The moral of this story is that it all depends on who is goring the ox. Harrison got a pass, whereas Kaminsky would have been dead meat.