New York Post columnist Phil Mushnik incited a cyberspace riot this week as he used racial slurs during a diatribe against the Brooklyn Nets and their co-owner rapper Jay-Z.
Mushnik, in a Post column, even went so far as to suggest that the Brooklyn Nets should change their name to the ‘New York Ni**ers’ in what one can only assume is meant to be a dig at Jay-Z’s use of the n-word in his lyrics. Mushnick argues that since the team has a new “urban” locale it should get the full “Jay-Z treatment. Here’s what Mushnik said in full:
As long as the Nets are allowing Jay-Z to call their marketing shots — what a shock that he chose black and white as the new team colors to stress, as the Nets explained, their new “urban” home — why not have him apply the full Jay-Z treatment?
Why the Brooklyn Nets when they can be the New York N——s? The cheerleaders could be the Brooklyn B—-hes or Hoes. Team logo? A 9 mm with hollow-tip shell casings strewn beneath. Wanna be Jay-Z hip? Then go all the way!
Mushnick’s column fueled a fierce firestorm on Twitter, with numerous commentators in the sports world calling for him to be fired by the Post immediately.
The sports blog Bob Blitz has posted a response from Mushnick to the backlash in which he wrote:
“Bob – Such obvious, wishful and ignorant mischaracterizations of what I write are common. 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. Jay-Z, on the other hand…..Is he the only NBA owner allowed to call black men N–ers?”
Jay-Z profits from the worst and most sustaining self-enslaving stereotypes of black-American culture and I’M the racist? Some truths, I guess, are just hard to read, let alone think about.”
What are your thought? Should the NY Post columnist be fired or forced to resign? Or is there a spate of truth into what he’s saying about Jay-Z who did frequently sprinkle the N-word and B-word in many songs throughout his celebrated career?
