We read:
"The fan who allegedly directed a racial slur at Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo was banned for the season Monday by the NBA and Orlando Magic.
Season-ticket holder Hooman Hamzehloui allegedly called Mutombo a "monkey" Thursday at a preseason game between the Rockets and the Magic.
Source
Sports fans regularly call out abuse at members of opposing teams (and sometimes at members of their own teams). You can say that an opponent is a part of the female anatomy (etc.) but you cannot say that they are a popular primate.
Why? If anybody called me a monkey I would think they were calling me clever -- as monkeys sometimes are. So it is only offensive if applied to blacks. Why? Is it because blacks are seen as less evolved?
If so, why forbid popular discussion of that opinion? If you need to censor it you just reinforce the impression that it is right. The old European Communist regimes were great censors and large numbers of their citizens ended up believing nothing they said
Greg Wyshynski has some good comments on the affair, including: "A man who called Dikembe Mutombo a monkey from the lower deck has evidently received a stricter punishment from the NBA than a fan that ran out on the court during a riot and engaged in a physical altercation with a player"
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