NBA player Ben Simmons back in Melbourne (home city), was stopped for an ID check entering Crown Casino along with all but one of his group of friends (the one not checked was apparently white). Once they actually showed ID they were all allowed in. The casino responded by saying it’s policy for security to ask for ID where they suspect anyone may be under 25 (presumably allowing an age tolerance for visual estimation - the actual min age is 18).
I’m not really sure how this could be construed as racism. They were permitted entry after proving their age, even though their attire violated published dress standards. If security really were racist, they could have easily used those grounds as a cover to deny entry.
As I alluded to in another thread, these ‘boy who cried wolf’ stories are not doing the true movement any good.
NBA player Ben Simmons back in Melbourne (home city), was stopped for an ID check entering Crown Casino along with all but one of his group of friends (the one not checked was apparently white). Once they actually showed ID they were all allowed in. The casino responded by saying it’s policy for security to ask for ID where they suspect anyone may be under 25 (presumably allowing an age tolerance for visual estimation - the actual min age is 18).
I’m not really sure how this could be construed as racism. They were permitted entry after proving their age, even though their attire violated published dress standards. If security really were racist, they could have easily used those grounds as a cover to deny entry.
As I alluded to in another thread, these 'boy who cried wolf’ stories are not doing the true movement any good.
To your point, a charge of rasim rarely registers on my outrage meter any longer. I don’t know if this man felt he was truly subjected to a racist attitude or just wanted more clicks, but I’m indifferent at this point.
This story is fairly big news here in Australia, especially on talk back radio.
Crown Casino has the whole saga recorded via security cameras so could easily release the vision to prove what happened, but don’t seem to want to even though multiple witnesses have come forward to say Simmons is just making shit up and needs to STFU.
I think the biggest problem is that Simmons thinks he is still in the US.
He may be the next big thing in the States, but back in Oz where B’ball is nothing more than a fringe sport, he is a no body and very few people would actually recognise him (I know I wouldn’t), so the whole “Do you know who I am?” thing doesn’t work here.
The most ironic thing is that he was being paid by the Victorian state government to promote his trip back home vis his social media accounts.
I dont think he could have made Australia look worse if he tried…