*New York Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick is attempting to defend himself against critics who labeled his recent post about Jay-Z’s co-ownership of the Brooklyn Nets racist.
In his “Equal Time” column for the conservative paper, Mushnick commented on the recently-unveiled Brooklyn Nets logo and saw the black-and-white colors in racial terms.
“Why the Brooklyn Nets when they can be the New York N—-s,” he wrote. “The cheerleaders could be the Brooklyn B—hes or H—. Team logo? A 9 mm with hollow-tip shell casings strewn beneath. Wanna be Jay-Z hip? Then go all the way!”
The piece was followed with readers flooding the paper with calls for his termination. Mushnick, however, firmly stood by his column in two interviews about the controvesy.
“I don’t call black men the N-word; I don’t regard young women as bitches and whores; I don’t glorify the use of assault weapons and drugs,” he told Bob’s Blitz later in the day. “Jay-Z, on the other hand… Is he the only NBA owner allowed to call black men n—–s?”
“A good portion of my columns, the last 30 years, has been devoted to identification and condemnation of increased incivility and social desensitization as marketing strategy within sports and all forms of entertainment,” he later told New York Magazine. “I see it as no different and I plan to continue to argue against the negative racial and ethnic stereotyping and the promotion of mindless violence, especially to the young and most vulnerable.”
