On the Steve Sailer site at unz.com there is some discussion of "Why White Fans Hate White Basketball Players", an article in BSPN magazine a couple of weeks ago. Some good comments.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/why-white-fans-hate-white-basketball-players/
A theory about Aaron Craft
Why the Buckeyes point guard is always the most hated player on the court
Originally Published: March 5, 2013
By Wayne Drehs | ESPN The Magazine
“AARON CRAFT AND I have a date tonight,†Michigan senior Alex Lipnik tells me, some three hours before his Wolverines will face the hated Buckeyes. … Lipnik, a communications major, has stood outside for nearly nine hours in temps in the low teens with the lone goal of telling the Ohio State junior guard exactly how he feels.
“You suck,†Lipnik yells during pregame warmups. “I hate you. You’re terrible at basketball. You shouldn’t even be out on the floor. You should be paying us to watch you.â€
Craft ignores the taunts. He dribbles to the other end of the court, also packed with testosterone-laced Michigan fans, to shoot jumpers.
“This isn’t JV, Craft.â€
“Go home! You’re too small to play this game.â€
“You suck, Craft. And I’m not just saying that to be mean. You actually do suck.â€
For Craft, it’s just another night on the road in the Big Ten as one of the country’s most polarizing players. “They hate me,†he admits.
What has he done to deserve this? Why have students like Lipnik counted the days (353, to be exact) until Craft returned to Crisler? Because he’s a pest. Because his physical, in-your-face defense can fluster anyone, even Michigan’s Player of the Year candidate, Trey Burke. And because of something else — something difficult to pin down.
Twenty-four hours earlier, in a meeting room in the heart of Michigan’s campus, some 65 members of the Maize Rage, the UM student section, are squirming in their seats.
They are there to organize outfits and cheers, taunts and jeers. All agree Craft certainly will be a target. But then the group is asked to vote, by a show of hands, if they would feel differently about Craft if he weren’t white. The students pause. Deliberate. A few hands gradually pop up. And then a few more. When it’s clear that it’s socially acceptable to do so, nearly half the students in the room — a room where everyone, coincidentally, is white — raise their hands.
FROM THE REACTION, it’s obvious that most of these fans weren’t really aware they enjoy insulting a white player partly because he’s white. It’s easier to believe they hate him just because, and to keep tricky racial biases relegated to the subconscious.
Lipnik, though, is more open about his predilections than most. “I’m thrilled you said that,†Lipnik says when asked about the role Craft’s skin color plays in his long-brewing animosity. “I didn’t want to be the racist guy who calls out the white thing. But that’s exactly one of the main reasons I hate him. He’s that rural white guy who thinks he’s hard-nosed, the my-dad-taught-me-how-to-play-defense, I-can’t-score-the-basketball-if-you-paid-me guy. And everyone hates those guys. They’re just … just annoying.â€