UNC basketball alum speaks out about racially motivated attack in Chapel Hill in 2019
Former UNC-Chapel Hill basketball player Kane Ma is speaking out about a “traumatic,” racially motivated assault two years ago that left him “lying in a hospital bed, diagnosed with a large skull fracture.”
Ma, who is Asian American, shared details of the Chapel Hill attack on LinkedIn following the killing of eight people, including six Asian women, at massage parlors in the Atlanta area.
“Due to the horrific acts we witnessed in Atlanta this week and the increase in Asian hate crimes, I feel that I can no longer be silent,” Ma wrote in the LinkedIn post Saturday.
Ma said he was meeting up with a friend in Chapel Hill in March 2019, after he’d graduated from UNC, when he was jumped by three men.
“What I recall last, as they approached me, was hearing the words ‘You gonna try some kung-fu on us?’” Ma wrote.
Shortly after, he was in the hospital with serious injuries. Ma said he reported the incident to the police, but said it was dismissed as a “my word vs. theirs” situation,” he wrote.
He said his attackers approached him again at a Chapel Hill bar two months later and one told him “White people have power.” Despite his love for Chapel Hill, Ma said these “acts of hate” left a lasting impact on him physically and mentally.
“Bigoted thoughts can turn into bigoted words, which can turn into ‘empowered’ actions,” Ma wrote. “And, what happened to me is just one of many stories of racial violence.”
Help from UNC basketball
Ma also added on his LinkedIn post that the UNC basketball program helped him throughout the process in finding “legal representation and justice in the situation.”
Steve Kirschner, a spokesman for the UNC basketball team, confirmed on Monday that the program was aware of the assault against Ma, though it happened after he graduated.
Assistant basketball coach Hubert Davis helped Ma obtain an attorney, according to Kirschner.
Ma was a member of the university’s junior varsity program before he was called up to varsity before a game at Tennessee in December 2017.
He played 13 minutes in 12 games during the ‘17-’18 season. Ma started in the game on his Senior Night and went to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2018 with the Tar Heels.
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 3:42 PM.
