New York Post Writer Unapologetic for Racist Comments About Jay-Z + the Nets

If you feel like you haven't face-palmed enough today, New York Post writer Phil Mushnick is here to change that. Though his inflammatory and racist commentary about the Nets and the team's co-owner Jay-Z came under fire this week, Mushnick still stands by his article.

Some background for those of you intelligent enough not to pay any mind to Mushnick's 'Equal Time' column in the first place: On May 4, the Post saw fit to publish Mushnick's rants over how upset he was over the now-Brooklyn Nets' new black and white colors. Mushnick saw the new team colors -- you know, the same ones you'd find on a soccer ball, dice, a chess board or a million other things -- to be specifically marketing the urban community. Really? Seriously?

In the original column, Mushnick wrote:

“Why the Brooklyn Nets when they can be the New York N—ers? The cheerleaders could be the Brooklyn B—–es or H–s. Team logo? A 9 mm with hollow-tip shell casings strewn beneath. Wanna be Jay-Z hip? Then go all the way!”

Obviously, this angered a whole lot of readers, who took to various social media to express their fury ... all of which Mushnick claims to not have seen. Right. Sports website Bob's Blitz got a hold of Mushnick and offered him a chance to explain himself, to which he wrote:

Such obvious, wishful and ignorant mischaracterizations of what I write are common. I don't call black men the N-word; I don't regard young women as b----es and w----s; I don't glorify the use of assault weapons and drugs. Jay-Z, on the other hand.....Is he the only NBA owner allowed to call black men N---ers?" 

Jay-Z profits from the worst and most sustaining self-enslaving stereotypes of black-American culture and I'M the racist? Some truths, I guess, are just hard to read, let alone think about.

(Same column I provide support for Amar'e Stoudemire at a time when everyone in town is ripping him to shreds. That was my LEAD, too, but what does that matter?)

He also shot an email over to The Village Voice:

did you actually read what I wrote and what I've been writing for 30 years? I don't call black men n----s; my kids never heard the word until folks such as Jay-Z came along. I'd suggest you talk to him about it. What I wrote today was on Jay Z's artistry, and only the wishful and foolish would so badly misinterpret and mischaracterize it as you plan to do. 

Weird, his kids never read 'Huckleberry Finn?' In any case, Mushnick seems to be missing the point that Jay-Z's lyrics aren't actually racist. Mushnick's applying them (or rather, how he assumes and interprets them) to violent, misogynist stereotypes of the "urban" community is at best extremely ignorant, and at worst pretty racist. The fact that he's trying to distance himself from the comments by blaming them on Hov just confirms that they're both obnoxious and offensive.

Jay-Z has yet to comment on the article himself, but we can't imagine he's thrilled. Poor form, Mushnick.