On Saturday, Wisconsin defeated Kentucky to advance to the NCAA men’s Div 1 basketball national championship game in one of the best college basketball games of the season. You probably already knew that. What you might not know is that after the game, Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison, an African American, said of Wisconsin star Frank Kaminsky, a white man, in a question not even directed at him “Fuck that nigga.”
The initial response? Predictable. From many black people (myself included), there was a fair amount of “LMAO” and “Damn, Andrew Harrison is too real!” From many white people, pure outrage.
A brief saunter over to the comment section of this story on ESPN and you’ll see white people are PISSED OFF. Well, some white people.
“If Kaminsky had said the same thing about Harrison, the Internet would explode! Jesse & Al Sharpton would be leading rallies up in Madison!”
There was a lot of that. A LOT. These are more than likely the same people who’ll complain about the existence of BET by arguing, “Why can’t there be a White Entertainment Television?”
My response: Yep. You’re absolutely right. It would be an enormous story if Kaminsky uttered those same words in reference to Harrison. So what’s your point?
Are we really suggesting that white people are on the short end of the double standard stick in this country? Is that what “post-racial America” looks like? If so, we’re in trouble. All of us.
The essential ingredient to there ever being anything remotely resembling a “post-racial society” is understanding (and empathy, but we’ll take one thing at a time). The fact is, people who argue that Harrison should have the book thrown at him for this stupid comment (and it was absolutely stupid) and are infuriated by his lack of formal punishment thus far is white privilege at its finest. In other words, there are advantages to being white in America that are so inherent, white people aren’t even always aware that they exist.
These people seem to be hung up on the double standard that allows Harrison, and pretty much all black people, to use the word “nigger/nigga” as openly as they please— they also come off incredibly racist, whether they realize it or not.
It may seem illogical to jump to this conclusion, but quite frankly, and we’ve been down this road before, why exactly are these people so eager to even say the word “nigger”? And what other reason could it be other than repressed racism? Are all these angry white people sticklers for fairness and equality across the board? Seems like specious reasoning to say the least.
You want to talk double standards & accountability? Where’s the white double standard police (I guess that’s what we’ll call them) when our judicial system locks up black people at a widely disproportionate rate and for longer sentences for the same crimes committed by whites? Blacks make up 12.6% of the population but account from anywhere from 39-44% of those incarcerated in the United States. Where’s the fury in the comment sections on articles on this issue?
Is the white double standard police out in full force to tackle the decades of housing discrimination that have hampered black families in America? The unnecessary red tape, the unchecked bureaucracy, the white flight— are any of these ESPN commenters standing up for this cause?
How about the “real” police taking the lives of unarmed black men, teens and children across the country who, forget about prosecuted, are by and large hit with a suspension before being allowed to return to work at worst— is the white double standard police leading the rallies for these slain individuals who lost their lives at the hands of those entrusted to serve and protect them?
Were these individuals cool with the expulsion of the University of Oklahoma white frat boys who were recently caught on a camera phone singing a song about lynching niggers? I’ll ask again: Are all these angry white people sticklers for fairness and equality across the board, or only in situations when it’s advantageous for them?
You know who doesn’t get bent out of shape about this N-word issue? White people with enough sense to realize they should never say the word anyway.
Let’s bring this full circle: what Andrew Harrison did was stupid, immature, classless, short-sighted, and he came off like a baby who wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle his team’s first loss of the season, two games away from the championship. But what he said wasn’t “racist”, like some are claiming. Let’s make that clear.
A lot of people could learn something from national Player of the Year, Frank Kaminsky.
A black person directing a slur used to degrade black people at a white person isn’t racist. Offensive? Sure. It would’ve been offensive had Harrison said, “Fuck that Kaminsky”, and therefore, punishment for general breach of conduct from either coach John Calipari or the University of Kentucky would be appropriate. But arguing that this is in some way a hate crime and that the Internet would explode if Kaminsky had said the same about Harrison is comparing apples to IPhones. It ignores the entire history that word contains with regards to whites directing it at blacks, which is a crucial point.
Many white women affectionately refer to their female friends as “bitches”. Italian, Jewish and Latino people have also been known to talk to one another using language that wouldn’t be acceptable if said to them by people outside their group. For some reason, when African-Americans are involved, it becomes a hot button issue and leads Anderson Cooper 360.
Harrison apologized via Twitter in the wee hours of Sunday morning. He also reached out to Kaminsky and apologized to him directly. For his part, Kaminsky has come out and said he’s cool with Harrison, he’s “over it” and that it’s a dead issue. But don’t tell that to the double standard police! Like an addict chasing that next high, they just can’t give this thing up! For whatever reason THIS is their cause.
Ironically, the double standard police choosing to zero in on this alleged double standard, but ignoring all other double standards where black folks draw the short straw on far more important issues, is in fact a double standard itself.
To anyone who is enraged by Harrison not getting dragged by fans and media the way a white player would have if he said the same thing about a black player, please stop and for a brief moment show some cognitive awareness regarding racism and institutionalized racism. For some reason, a certain segment of the white population is obsessed with this one SINGULAR “advantage” (that term used as loosely as humanly possible) they actually don’t have. Suffice it to say this black person, and presumably most all others, would happily trade places on the double standard scale.
More often than not, being white in this country is a pretty sweet deal. Most people know this, but then there’s that special group of people that still feels like they’re getting shafted. Their opinions are fueled by misguided ignorance; this misguided ignorance just happens to be the lifeblood of social media and makes Andrew Harrison look like the Dalai Lama. Freedom of speech is something else, ain’t it?
God bless America.