Republican lawmaker sends seemingly racist tweet about NBA, claims it's not racist

Republican lawmaker sends seemingly racist tweet about NBA, claims it&#039;s not racist

(Image credit: Minnesota House of Representatives)

last updated 8 January 2015

Minnesota State Rep. Pat Garofalo (R) opined Sunday evening on the potential impact of condensing the National Basketball Association:

However, the NBA's arrest rate isn't too far off from that of the public as a whole. (Deadspin estimated it to actually be lower than the national average.) And citing a lax marijuana testing policy to support a claim about street crime is an illogical leap stemming from the same sort of mentality that ascribes the word "thugs" to brash athletes. As Richard Sherman aptly put it when people freaked out about his post-game rant in the NFL playoffs, thug is "an accepted way of calling somebody the N-word."

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.

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