Grantland has a cheesy little feature up on the most hated players of the past 30 years and naturally, Duke has a bracket to itself (it’s a parody of the NCAA tournament bracket).

That’s fine and funny and all of that, but here’s what gets us: why is it that the “hated” Duke players are almost always white? What does that say exactly?

It’s not entirely the case; of Duke’s seven, Shane Battier and Austin Rivers are also listed. Under American concepts of race, they are considered black even though they each have a white parent.

But still: why is there this fixation on race when it comes to Duke?

In the ’80′s, ’90′s and ’00′s brackets, there are a few other Caucasians, several, curiously, associated with Roy Williams: Eric Montross (close enough), Tyler Hansbrough and Kirk Hinrich.

But overwhelmingly, the detested white players come from Duke: Christian Laettner, Greg Paulus, Wojo, Danny Ferry, JJ Redick and Bobby Hurley.

It’s a bit curious, really. From the crib we’re taught to accept, not to judge others, to accept diversity and to celebrate differences.

Somehow, Duke basketball has become an exception to that.

All that said, it’s somehow monumental that only Duke gets singled out in this way.