Georgia racism
Tourney Director Uses Racial Slur
MACON, Ga. (AP) -- The director of Georgia's high school basketball tournament says he doesn't consider a racial epithet he used at a playoff game to be offensive.
John Goldston, the longtime director of the Georgia High School Association Tournament, used the epithet Thursday while speaking to a group of men at a check-in table on the basketball court of the Macon Coliseum. A reporter for the Macon Telegraph covering the state playoff game heard Goldston use the word while referring to the number of black residents in Macon.
One of the men to whom Goldston was speaking corrected him by saying, "African-American," but Goldston repeated the epithet.
The reporter asked him if his comments were inappropriate, to which the 81-year-old responded, "Probably, yes."
"It's just a word to me. I don't mean anything derogatory by it," Goldston said.
