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Honoring White Basketball Player Gets U. Wisconsin-Madison Accused of Racism

Honoring White Basketball Player Gets U. Wisconsin-Madison Accused of Racism

“What message do you think that sends to potential recruits and to past and current players of color?”

Things like this have become so tiresome. When will people have had enough?

The College Fix reports:

U. Wisconsin-Madison accused of racism for honoring white basketball legend

In April 2015, University of Wisconsin star forward Frank Kaminsky was named Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year. Kaminsky, who had just led the Badgers to two straight Final Four appearances, became the first Wisconsin player to ever receive the award.

In February of 2018, Kaminsky was given the ultimate honor by the school – his number 44 jersey was retired and placed in the rafters, never to be worn by another Badger. In receiving the award, Kaminsky became only the second Wisconsin player to be so honored.

But this week, a local columnist took exception to Kaminsky’s award. Henry Sanders, publisher and CEO of Madison365.com, a publication that aims to “foster dialog between members of diverse communities,” argued in an “open letter” that the school’s honoring of Kaminsky suffers from a significant drawback:

Kaminsky is the wrong color.

“The only two players who’ve been given that honor in the 100-plus years of Badger Men’s Basketball are white,” Sanders notes in the open letter.

“What message do you think that sends to potential recruits and to past and current players of color?” Sanders asks.

“Trust me, they notice,” he adds.

“As a person of color, whenever I go into a building, a business, or a school, I look to see whether or not I’m reflected,” Sanders writes.

“I look at the faces of the people working there. I look at the pictures of the staff on the walls. I look at the people being served. I look to see who’s being celebrated. It’s the little things that tell me where I stand.”

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Comments

Congrats to Wisconsin for recognizing merit. There seems to be no argument that he wasn’t the best player during those years. No single race owns the game or sport of basketball.

    jb4 in reply to artichoke. | March 8, 2020 at 8:52 pm

    “Racism”??? Considering the racial makeup of basketball versus the general population doesn’t it look like a racist sport? Perhaps we need a little Affirmative Action here?

Tell you what, dingbat. You are indeed not reflected here and not welcome here, so take yourself somewhere else. Meanwhile people who look exactly like you on the outside but are nothing like you on the inside are very welcome.

George_Kaplan | March 8, 2020 at 5:13 pm

“… I look to see who’s being celebrated. It’s the little things that tell me where I stand.”

So then it’s bad when Whites are vilified and only non-Whites are praised and celebrated? Seems to be a modicum of cognitive dissonance in effect here!

Then the racist columnist should find another university.

Wsconsin and Iowa typically have the most white players in the Big Ten most years.

Question: Can anyone tell me why the number (or lack thereof) 0 is so popular with black players? It seems almost every college team has a uniform with 0 and it’s always a black player wearing it.

    mochajava76 in reply to bw222. | March 9, 2020 at 10:08 am

    interesting question. I would think many players ask for a number because they look up to someone who wore that number.

    I know Robert Parish (“Chief”) of the Celtics wore 00.
    I did a search for players who wore 0, and found 107 NBA and ABA players who wore that number.

    Some of them i recognize, but many were played for years for different teams sometimes didn’t always wear that number.
    Maybe their desired number was already worn, or retired.
    Maybe it is just laundry

The author, Sanders, would feel very comfortable in prisons, since he is so well “represented”.