Cornell Vs. Kentucky Is a Mess of Stereotypes

Cornell plays Kentucky tonight in the NCAA tournament, and Matt Taibbi is tired of hearing the same old storyline—and stereotypes—repeated again and again: the "plucky" white kids of Cornell, playing only for the love of the game, going up against the "showboating NBA-bound street kids at Kentucky." Please. "Am I imagining things or is this becoming a minor subterranean Tea Party cause celebre?" Taibbi asks in his True/Slant blog.

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He's finding it a little difficult to work up a rooting interest for the Cornell players, most of whom came from "upper-middle-class backgrounds" and have "cozy lives waiting for them" upon graduation. "Meanwhile the Kentucky kids are mostly inner-city types who needed some breaks just to get where they are." Sure, they might be millionaire jerks in a few years, "but while they’re still teenagers basketball is a life-or-death deal" for them.
(Read more NCAA tournament stories.)