In today’s day and age, almost anything can be interpreted as racist depending on the undertone of a message. But one Minnesota lawmaker walked a very fine line of being racist and being realistic with a comment he made over the weekend.

Minnesota Rep. Pat Garofalo sent out a controversial tweet on Sunday about the NBA. In the tweet he said, “Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime.” This tweet landed the lawmaker in hot water considering that the NBA is nearly 80% Black. Initially, Garofalo defended his statements, but after drawing the ire of thousands on Twitter, he released an apology statement on Monday.

At this point, nothing that anyone says shocks me anymore. We have had famous figures go as far as to saying the N-word in public settings, so the statement by Garofalo does not shock me or surprise me. It is just sad that the stereotypes of the Black male in America today is still that of a thug who if not playing sports or rhyming lyrics, has only a criminal lifestyle to fall back on.