Posted on 02/02/2016 9:03:40 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The Sacramento Kings scrapped plans for a T-shirt giveaway at the last-minute on Monday after DeMarcus Cousins reportedly objected to them.
The shirts were part of the Sacramento Kings' celebration of the Lunar New Year in February. The shirts depicted a purple monkey symbolizing the year of the monkey in the Chinese New Year in the team's color.
The giveaway seems to have been unfortunately planned as Monday was the first day of Black History Month. Referring to African-Americans as monkeys or lower forms of primates has been considered racist, and a shirt with a monkey on the first day of Black History Month appears to have raised concerns in a league that is predominantly African-American.
Teams across the NBA are looking for ways to reach out to a growing Chinese middle class as the league tries to expand its borders. Part of that outreach includes events around the Lunar New Year, like the ones the Kings tried on Monday.
The Golden State Warriors' approach doesn't prominently involve a monkey and instead is a re-imagining of the team's logo with Chinese characters added inside the team's circular logo.
The Kings decided relatively late in the night to make the change as the shirts were laid out in the arena, then removed shortly before fans entered Sleep Train Arena on Monday. Milwaukee Bucks analyst Marques Johnson said Kings star DeMarcus Cousins voiced his disapproval.
After the game, Kings President Chris Granger said there were concerns the shirts could be offensive, so the team opted to be cautious and remove them.
Pulling the shirts sounds like a micro-aggression against Chinese-Americans.
Culturally unaware...
But I thought Asians were white just like ‘white Hispanics’ such as George Zimmerman!
It was not about blacks; it was about China. The people who look so hard for chances to take offense strike me as too delicate to go out in the real world.
Worlds are colliding, Jerry!
Replace them with “year of the felon” maybe?...
Sidewalk monkeys?
Is there a “white” history month ? Why not?
Micro? MICRO? This is racial hatred of the worst sort! This guy needs to be fired immediately and be forced to attend sensitivity training! (/liberal drama)
Purple monkeys should be offended and should complain that their images on T-shirts were scrapped because of some PC crap.
Who would think this has anything to do with Black History Month?
yeah, what, what the @#$@#$??
someone should have just told him to go @#$@#$ himself.
but asians think they are aligned with the blacks against whitey.
those ignorant @#$@#$s
they work so hard, barely any crime, but the new generation wants pity.
they have NOTHING in common with black men from the hood.
EVERYONE WANTS PITY!!
my old man had three heart attacks, two strokes, a missing kidney from a urinary tract infection he got before penicillin was around, and an aneurysm before the second one in the head killed him when i was 15.
I turned out pretty ok, even without a grieving committee formed to hold my hand for the next 10 years.
Guys on this board have been in battle!!!
some are quite sick. Like a Forever FReeper who died recently and I had the pleasure of exchanging emails with him because his sickness was relatable for personal reasons. He was TOUGH AS NAILS. The final tests he did with his illness were for research purposes!!!
told me being scared doesn’t mean you’re not tough. How you respond to it matters.
Guess what. Life’s not fair. You take what life hands you and you make it work.
STOP THE CRYING ALREADY!!!!
i thought these minority kids were so tough.
The consequences of my reference to a respected publication studying workplace efficiencies almost got me fired and caused me to be required to take two weeks of sensitivity training to keep my job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.