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A 1995 incident at a University of Hawaii basketball game provided the organizing case for a 1998 Price of Paradise episode on the scope of the state's Civil Rights Commission. Eric White, an African American season-ticket holder who had been loudly critical of the UH coach from seats near the team bench, was called a racial slur by Rob Wallace, the coach's son, who served as team manager on an athletic scholarship. The commission awarded White $31,000. Jeff Portnoy, who represented Rob Wallace, argued that the commission had exceeded its mandate by classifying a scholarship student manager as an employee or agent of the university — a categorisation, he said, no comparable body had adopted — and that in a democracy citizens retain the right to say offensive things without government penalty. Bill Hoshijo, the commission's executive director, maintained that the slur constituted discriminatory conduct in a place of public accommodation, that it was intended to harm rather than to convey an idea, and that the university's failure to take corrective action compounded the injury. The central question is whether a state civil rights body may reach conduct between a team representative and a spectator at a public sports venue.
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
