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ICYMI

KFOR’s trying to ignite some more OU N-word controversy…

1:18 PM EDT on March 24, 2015

Khadeem Lattin

On Sunday night, Lon Kruger and his OU men's basketball team eked out a hard-fought NCAA Tournament road win against the Dayton Flyers. As the buzzer sounded and players rushed to the court to celebrate, OU reserve Khadeem Lattin was caught by a CBS cameraman saying this as he hugged a teammate:

“C’mon n-----!”

Shocking, huh? A black man calling another black man the N-word... while on a basketball court. What's next? Using the word in hip hop music?

I heard Lattin's celebratory comment live on air as it happened. For me, it wasn't offensive and it wasn't a big deal. It was only noticeable because it's a word you rarely, if ever, hear on network television. However, once the words came out of his mouth, I immediately turned to an Ogle Groupie and said "Oh God, hopefully no one out there tries to make a big deal about this and compare it to the SAE controversy."

Well... they did. And of course it was KFOR Channel 4.

Yesterday, the Oklahoma City news channel led their 5pm broadcast with the story. In a move that resembles something Fox News would do, they tried to relate Lattin's socially acceptable use of the word with a bunch of frat boys joyously singing a memorized, racist chant about hanging black people from trees.

Via KFOR:

OU students have mixed reaction to a Sooners men’s basketball player using a racial slur on national television following Sunday’s NCAA second-round tournament victory over Dayton.

As the players were celebrating their berth in the tournament’s Sweet 16, a television camera picked up the sound of an unidentified Sooner yelling “C’mon ******!”

Two weeks ago, OU President David Boren closed the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity after a viral video surfaced of members using the same racial slur in a song.

Two SAE members were expelled from the university as a result.

That ridiculous, but on a positive note, at least the local media is finally covering the OU men's basketball team! Now that we have the Thunder, that rarely happens. Sure, it's pathetic that it took a player to drop the N-word during a celebration to get KFOR's attention, but as a wise man once said, "Any publicity is good publicity." Also, the players finally know how to win some media attention.

Let's get some of the man-on-the-street reactions to the non-story:

“They’re two completely different words and two completely different contexts when you use the words,” one OU student said.

Another student said, “I’d prefer no one use it, but I think it’s up to our generation to actually decide how to use it in the future.”

One student said he could understand why some would think it’s a double standard on the appropriateness of the word’s use.

“I think equality starts with vocabulary,” he said.

“If people find that to be a very hateful word, stop using it,” another student said.

I think to get a full appreciation for the man-on-the-street comments, you need to see the people they interviewed. Here's the video:

Notice how the African-American men were cool, confident and made sense when talking about the issue. The white guys, on the other hand, looked about as comfortable as a virgin buying condoms. They spoke slowly, stretched out their words, paused, mumbled, and appeared to be thinking in their head "Why the hell are you asking me about this?!" In all fairness, I would have done the same thing.

Anyway, in case you can't tell, I'm team "Black People Can Use The N-Word If They Want." This New York Times Op-ed does a great job explaining why. Read it.

Also, good luck to the OU men's basketball team on Friday night. They'll need it. Hopefully KFOR covers the team for the right reasons from here on out.

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