Levenson Hawks Sale Casts New Spotlight on Race in U.S. Society
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Bruce Levenson’s decision to sell the Atlanta Hawks, the second basketball franchise this year to change ownership in the wake of an owner’s racist comments, may lead to wider discussion of America’s racial inequality, according to the head of a sports sociology organization.
Levenson announced yesterday that he will sell his controlling interest in the Hawks as a result of a 2012 e-mail in which he says the team’s black fans “scared away” its white ones. Levenson apologized for the e-mail, which he reported to the National Basketball Association in July, calling it “offensive” and “inappropriate.”