A sports announcer at an Oklahoma high school basketball game uttered a racial slur into a live microphone as players on the court knelt during the national anthem on Thursday night, prompting widespread outrage and condemnation. In a video clip that quickly went viral, the announcer could be heard cursing as he saw the players of the Norman High School girls’ basketball team kneel just before the start of a quarterfinal state tournament game against Midwest City. “They’re kneeling?” he says, apparently not realizing that he and the rest of the broadcast team could still be heard. Then he utters the racial slur, adding, “I hope they lose.”“They’re going to kneel like that?” he continues. “Hell, no.”Frankie Parks, a teacher at Norman High School and the team coach, posted a video clip on Twitter on Friday morning, condemning the announcer’s comments, which infuriated local leaders around Norman, a city of 123,000 people about 20 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Source: New York Times March 13, 2021 18:09 UTC