NBA star Ben Simmons claims being called the ‘N-word’ as a child drove him to call out ‘racial profiling’ after he was refused entry to Crown casino
- Simmons said he was racially profiled at Melbourne’s Crown casino on August 5
- He claims security asked him and his group of friends to pull out his ID
- He took to Instagram and claimed people who were white weren’t asked for ID
- Simmons said in an interview being called the ‘N-word’ inspired him to speak out
Ben Simmons said racism he experienced as a child inspired him to call out what he claimed was ‘racial profiling’ after being refused entry to Crown casino.
The Philadelphia 76ers NBA star claimed security barred him from entering the casino in Melbourne in August due to the colour of his skin – despite Crown claiming they asked him and his entourage for their IDs because of their age.
Simmons, 23, said he was called the ‘N-word’ as a child, and his father Dave taught him to ‘never take that from anybody’.
The 29-year-old originally from Melbourne claimed security asked him and his friends to pull out their IDs because of the colour of their skin during a night out on August 5 (pictured: Ben Simmons with his ex-girlfriend Kendall Jenner)
‘And the one thing my dad told me was, ”Never take that from anybody. Never let anybody be racist towards you or make you feel a certain way, because it’s not right.” That’s the one thing that’s sort of stuck with me,’ Simmons told The Undefeated.
He said the experience at Crown made him feel ‘lesser of a person.’
‘Knowing that there’s other people that have definitely experienced the same thing but can’t say anything because they don’t have the same platform. They can say something, but they might not reach as many people,’ Simmons said.
‘And knowing I was able to do that and bring awareness to the situation, I was happy about it, and I didn’t really care what the media was going to say, what people were going to say, because it doesn’t matter. Everybody should be respected and treated the same way.’
Simmons filmed an Instagram video during the incident at Crown casino and shared it to his 4.6million followers.
‘I find it so crazy that the only guy who doesn’t get checked to go into the casino is this guy,’ Simmons said before he turned the camera on to a white person.
‘I get checked, Mike gets checked and Tys gets checked. Thank you Crown Casino, damn, and they didn’t let me in, or him or this guy. Wow, we got a long way to go.’
Simmons, who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, believed white people who entered the casino were not asked to provide identification
Melbourne’s Crown Casino (pictured) denied Simmons’ claims and said the group of men were asked for identification because they looked young
He took to Twitter the next day after media outlets reported on the incident.
‘As you know an incident happened last night at Crown and my friends and I felt personally singled out, no one likes to feel like this,’ he said on Twitter.
‘I am very passionate about equality and I will always speak up even if it means having uncomfortable conversations.’
A spokeswoman for Crown Casinos told Daily Mail Australia the group were allowed in, and denies the allegations made by Simmons.
‘Crown strenuously rejects reports that it discriminated against a group of visitors last night,’ she said.
‘Crown’s internal security policy requires our security officers to check identification of those persons they believe to be under the age of 25, this is an enhanced safeguard to ensure that no one under the age of 18 is permitted entry to the Casino Floor as required by law.
‘The group subsequently provided identification and were permitted entry.’
Simmons (pictured) sat down for an interview on Wednesday where he talked about his experiences with racism as a child, being called the ‘N-word’ and how his father told him to ‘never take that from anybody’