"If you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that's fine," Dowling said. "But they give it to a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school."
William C. Dowling is an English professor at Rutgers and he thinks that the school is mistaken in moving towards "big time" college athletics. The statement above was from a New York Times article and I do not see how it can possibly be seen as racist since it was as a result of being asked about the positive impact of athletic scholarships for minority students. I would think that you would have to take it pretty far out of context to get "this guy is a racist" from that but it seems that the folks up the food chain at Rutgers have no problem doing just that.
Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy told local newspapers that Dowling's comment was "a blatantly racist statement."
In a statement released by the university, Rutgers President Richard McCormick called it "inaccurate and inhumane."
"It also has a racist implication that has no place whatsoever in our civil discourse," McCormick said in the statement.
A Rutgers spokesman said Thursday he did not know if Dowling would face any sanctions.
h/t ESPN
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