Sacramento Kings scrap planned T-shirt giveaway after DeMarcus Cousins takes issue – ESPN
The Sacramento Kings canceled a T-shirt giveaway Monday night after some in the organization, including star DeMarcus Cousins, found the shirts to be racially insensitive.
The Kings had placed black shirts adorned with a purple monkey as part of their Lunar New Year celebration on seats at Monday night’s game against theMilwaukee Bucks. The Chinese Year of the Monkey begins Feb. 8.
However, Monday also marked the first day of Black History Month, and players and coaches were wearing shirts in honor of the annual commemoration.
From: Sacramento Kings scrap planned T-shirt giveaway after DeMarcus Cousins takes issue
Well… I think all in all Black History Month trumps Chinese New Year.Report
Of course it does, #blackholidaysmatter.Report
I’m curious about the people involved in making the original decision, particularly their race and ethnicity. If Boogie and Johnson were the first Black people to see the shirts and they immediately recognize the potential for offense, then that seems to indicate that the Kings operation staff probably needs some (one?) Black people on it.
I’d chalk this up to well-intentioned but short-sighted endeavor that was rectified appropriately. But it didn’t need to be short-sighted. And our expectations should be higher.Report
Chinese folks should be offended by people assuming that the symbol of this new year, a monkey, is racist.Report
“Racially insensitive” does not equal “racist”.
But I don’t think you actually care about that. You’re looking to score points in a game only you seem to be playing.Report
And a happy Jesus-day to you too!
(At least the monkey new years cards aren’t too vile…)Report
Reminds me a bit of a tweet from a while back:
“When Google Maps is telling you to take a right on Malcolm Ten Boulevard, you realize that Google hired no black people.”Report
So the assumption is that only black folks would realize that is incorrect? That seems racist to me.Report
And when google maps tells you to drive down the middle of a fucking river, you know they’ve never hired rural people?Report
Really? So you’re endorsing the idea that “some people” are more important/better than “other people”?
That’s very animal farm of you. Maybe that should be added to the convo over here…
https://ordinary-times.com/2016/02/01/who-are-discrimination-laws-meant-to-protect/Report
This is an interesting take.Report
Just as grist for the “whose holiday celebration trumps” calculus, it appears that as of 2010, Asians comprise a larger minority than African-Americans do there, both in Sac and CA:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0664000.html
Now, obviously not all those Asians celebrate Chinese New Year, but let’s say they did…would it be culturally insensitive to them, to tell them the symbol of their celebration is unwelcome due to another, smaller minority’s celebration?Report
I would subscribe to the idea that one trumps another. What I think you had here was a group of white folks saying, “Let’s celebrate Chinese New Year!” without really thinking it through. I think there were ways to commemorate the holiday (which wasn’t actually on February 1, as best I understand) including mentions of which animal’s year it is, in a way that didn’t risk offense.
Like I said above, I think this was poorly thought out. I think they could have given each thing (I’m not sure BHM is a ‘holiday’…) its full due without offending either group.
I also haven’t heard any pushback from the Chinese-American community, locally or other. Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I just haven’t heard it. It is possible they’re offering it a big shrug because “Year of the Monkey” shirts given out at a basketball game may feel as relevant to their holiday as giving out Reindeer socks at a soccer match in Russia. Or something.Report
Well, maybe Will was being sarcastic (I don’t even know anymore, dude), but I was following his “trump” formulation. Maybe he just has Trump on the brain.Report
@glyph The game isn’t even on Chinese New Year or at the home game closest to Chinese New Year. If this event happened on Chinese New Year, you would have a point. However, there is another home game, that is closer and still before Chinese New Year. It’s not even like the shirt giveaway was happening on a weekend. The only tie that this game has with Chinese New Year is that it was in the same month. There’s no reason why they couldn’t do the Lunar New Year celebration at tonight’s game. I would also note that pretty much every other team playing Feb 1 did a Black History month celebration.Report
Chinese racism busted by Boogie!Report
Any other year, the cultural appropriation police would have got them anyway.Report
Who would have been gotten? I wonder if a white shirt with a monkey on it would have drawn the same ire? I think any holiday sharing stage with black history month would be considered insensitive. There can be only one!Report
This seems to be another one of those cases where a lot of offense and upset could be avoided if people just remembered the phrase, “Not everything is about you.”Report
Cousins didn’t get to be among the league leaders in technicals by keeping things in perspective.Report
The admin is fudging the troop numbers, unpossible.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/02/pentagon-won-t-say-how-many-troops-are-fighting-isis.htmlReport
What does this have to do with anything?Report
Links like this go on Morning Ed or Linky Friday.Report
I know and as soon as I hit send I realized it was the wrong thread. I then posted to acknowledge it was wrong.Report
Sorry wrong thread.Report
Purple monkeys on black shirts from a sports team named Kings just screams New Orleans to me.Report
Purple looks like they’re calling the Lakers monkeys.
OK with me.Report