SACRAMENTO, Calif. >> If you were at Sleep Train Arena about 90 minutes before tipoff Monday night, you would have thought the Kings were handling major laundry duty.
Before fans entered for the game against the Milwaukee Bucks, T-shirts that were placed on every seat to celebrate the Lunar New Year were being collected and put in large piles. The shirts had a monkey on the front because it’s the year of the monkey.
The shirts became an issue because they were to be distributed on the first day of Black History Month, when NBA players and coaches wear commemorative shirts.
“We all need a lesson in sensitivity,” Kings president Chris Granger said. “In an effort to celebrate Chinese New Year, we had some concerns about the T-shirt giveaway, so we pulled them all before the doors opened. Certainly we don’t want to offend anybody, and we acted as soon as we heard the concern.”
Center DeMarcus Cousins was one of the first people to raise concern with team officials, and soon thereafter, the shirts were collected.
Former NBA player and current Milwaukee TV analyst Marques Johnson applauded Cousins for speaking up and the Kings for removing the shirts.
“Good move Kings,” Johnson tweeted. “Year of Monkey Tees on 1st day of Black History Month not a good look. Thanks DeMarcus.”
p.c. ignorance in action.
No one who is named Tom is allowed in the arena.
No fried chicken or watermelon is allowed.
what happened to America being the melting pot?
Asians always take a backseat to other races…
If Black History month is all month, don’t they have the rest of the month to celebrate it?
Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!
You, sir, are terrible!
Repeat: not to worry, if there are Muslims among them they’d stay clear of your species.
SILLY…
Not enough Chinese players in the NBA. Yao Ming gets no respect.
And Jeremy Lin
these people need insensitivity training
Who gives a
Totally STUP=ID. Only one’s to be hurt are the Americans of Chinese ancestry. Duh….
In Hawaii we would be thrill to received free tee shirt commemorating Chinese lunar new year! Wouldn’t give it a second thought !
Especially pakes like myself and my family.
Article doesn’t explain exactly what is insensitive about handing out Chinese New Year T-shirts on the first day of the month that also happens to be Black History Month. Is an explanation omitted because the only explanation is a stoopid one? Just ignore any old-fashioned connotations, and just disregard the ultra-PC movement. Free T-shirts = GOOD!
What is more offensive? Not celebrating Chinese New Year or Black History month? Both events last more than a day. Both are “minorities.” Why not celebrate both!
apparently ‘black lives’ matter so much that nobody else counts anymore
I don’t see the insult to African Americans. It is the year of the Monkey for the Chinese Culture and other Asian Nations.
Why can’t people just see the good and/or bad in people instead of colors? For example, this guy /gal is good or he /she is bad?
Using the race card is never going to end…especially this election season; race is going to be exploited by we know which party is going to be and then they blame the other party as being racist.
#Monkey Shirts Matter
😉
Oh My! LOL
WoW Nice one!
LOL 🙂
I agree.
Preferential treatment for the chosen whose history was blacken by the white slave traders? Still atoning for heinous wrongs perpetrated generations ago by slave owners? Move on and get on with it. Wrongs cannot be undone, and to continue punishing both living generations is certainly not charitable either.
My admiration for your insightful comment.
Reminiscent of the misplaced outcry over the use of the word “niggardly” awhile back.
Look it up.
I believe it was a Senator from West Virginia who got excoriated for using that word. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with race, but the race-baiters couldn’t wait to exploit it as some sort of racist invective. And the rest was history.
Niggardly is the amount of common sense displayed.
This is news because…..?????
So same can be said if you feel sensitive to Black History Month as being a little racist can we ban that too?
I just wonder: Do we have a history month for other races than Black?
I wonder if anyone bought tickets because they thought they were getting that free Chinese NY t-shirt
I don’t understand this. Is it because it was a monkey? If it had been the year of the tiger would that have been alright?
Good point. Hmmmm
It might be that there are more racist blacks than racist asians in the NBA
not just the NBA!!
Crazy!!!!
If the T-shirts had anything to do with Muslims, the US Justice Department would have sent in an army of people to investigate the Kings.
Would they give out the tee shirts next week after celebrating the beginning of the black history month? If not, then
So what’s next. We gotta remove the primate section of every zoo for fear it will remind colored folks of their roots?
Ouch!
Okay… I guess you’re not a primate and do not have primate roots. That explains a lot. Read… uh, anything. please.
By pulling the shirts, aren’t they offending the chinese?
Pulling the shirts was a hate crime!
IMHO, we all know racism is not going away…but currently gas was thrown onto the fire by Obama…remember this….”President Obama said that police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, “acted stupidly” in arresting a prominent black Harvard professor last week after a confrontation at the man’s home.”
We need a lesson in not being so thin-skinned and kowtowing to a segment of the population that is ALWAYS itching to be “offended” and threatening boycotts, faux outrage, blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum. Give me a break!
They should donate the shirts to all non-black homeless people!!!
BTW:
When is White History Month ?
Regarding: “We all need a lesson in sensitivity,” Kings president Chris Granger said.”
How about a lesson in sensitivity toward the Chinese who contributed a lot more to mankind than ……?
Fair is Fair.
You must think the Chinese invented math, clocks, writing, medicine, architecture, iron smelting, surgery, and religion. Sorry–you owe so much in your life because math was invented by Africans, aka black folk, not Chinese. Learn some history.
“When is White History Month ?” There are nine of them: it’s called the school year.
🙂
Wow. So many shamelessly racist comments here. Probably because we don’t have a higher percentage of black people in Hawaii, and it’s so easy to talk crap anonymously on the interwebs. The comparison of black people to apes/monkeys is centuries-old hate, borne out of the need of white slave owners to dehumanize the people they were enslaving, and justify the act. If you’ve joined in on that ugly history, it says absolutely nothing good about you.
The shirts should have been passed out and if a fan doesn’t want one don’t take it. Why would you not expect racist comments after a racist act is performed? It’s the nature of the beast.
I aspire to be better than a beast, and most whom I know do the same. All who are making hateful comments live by a wretchedly lower standard.
OMG. My Chinese New Year celebration has to be cancelled and the world has to rename the lunar calendar with acceptable animals. Take it to the UN immediately! Wow, I almost insulted the NBA. What a shame that would be. What if they refuse to play? We’d be lost. A global tragedy. Clearly Chinese have to change their traditions. Time to gather the relatives and start the movement.
I guess the chinese come after the blacks there huh? I can’t believe this IDIOCY,,,,,,,,
grocery shopping today, told the manager all the crackers should be removed from the shelves this month.