Earlier today, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post published a column that included some racially-charged remarks about Jay-Z’s involvement with the Brooklyn Nets. I don’t think anyone saw it and thought, “Heh! Good point Mushy! They might as well do that!” Well, Mushnick is standing by his column and apparently so is his publisher. Mushnick responded to Bob’s Blitz about the outrage. From Bob’s Blitz:

Bob – 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 bitches and whores; 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?)

First of all, yes. Jay-Z is the only NBA owner allowed to say that word. Can David Stern fine him when his next album drops? I guess he could if he wanted to, but there will be no more public backlash against Jay-Z’s music than there usually is. That doesn’t change the fact that Jay-Z gets to say that word because he’s a rapper. Phil, as a columnist, does not. No matter how many nice things he says about Amar’e Stoudemire.

Just because Mushnick meant that part of his column to be… satire, parody, something – he never explains that part. Whatever it is, that doesn’t mean it’s right. I’m not here to call Mushnick a racist. I don’t think he is a racist. I’m here to point out that he – and the New York Post and his editors – published a column that said something racially-charged which can definitely be classified as racist. Intent doesn’t really matter.

Phil Mushnick’s Friday morning media musings aren’t Huck Finn or a Chris Rock bit. If this was humor or art, it was shit. The New York Post is embarrassing itself by supporting this. It’s not Mushnick that was wrong – it’s every person who read the column who was wishfully ignorant in their wrongheadedness. Jay-Z, the Brooklyn Nets and the National Basketball Association are the ones profiting here. Blame them.

[Bob's Blitz]

Previously: Phil Mushnick Says Under Jay-Z’s influence, the Brooklyn Nets May as Well Be the New York N—–s”