College basketball star, Andrew Harrison, received a lot of negative looks and a lot of bad press after his microphone caught the player saying a racial slur.
Harrison was unaware that the microphone was still on and capable of picking up him cursing and using a terribly offensive racial slur towards opposing team member, Frank Kaminsky.
While some people are angry with Harrison, Kaminsky claims that he is “over it,” and believes that Harrison may not have been racist, but just the act of a ignorance, and that Harrison was just being idiotic.
Harrison reached out to the public by saying saying, “”First I want to apologize for my poor choice of words used in jest towards a player I respect and know. When I realized how this could be perceived I immediately called Big Frank to apologize and let him know I didn’t mean any disrespect. We had a good conversation and I wished him good luck in the championship game Monday.”
Kaminsky acknowledged the player’s apology by saying, “I’m glad he reached out. He’s a nice kid. He said he really respects me and he really apologizes for what he said. I could tell he was sincere about it.”
We live in a society that certain slurs and racist terminology are sometimes seen as socially acceptable based on the media; this was most likely a case that resulted from exposure to the word.
Harrison may not be a racist like the media may have portrayed him to be, he is simply a product of his environment, where some behaviors may be acceptable.
If the microphones did not catch him saying these offensive words, he probably would continue to use such language not thinking about it, so maybe this incident will open the young player’s mind.
It was just a good thing that Kamisnky and Harrison acted as fast as they did on the subject, so the issue did not explode any further.
Content Photo – Brian Spurlock / USA Today