Anger over his daughter, Brooke Hogan, dating a black man was the source of Hulk Hogan’s reported racist rant, one that not only ended his celebrated career with the WWE but caused the company to scrub him from its Web site. On Tuesday, Brooke defended her father in an interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” but it’s no sure thing that she helped matters.

“He’s my dad, I love him and the reason I’m standing by his side on this whole thing is because I know him, and it’s so easy for people to just — they need something to jump down people’s backs about,” Hogan told “ET.” “He’s an easy target.”

Of course, many would say that Hulk Hogan made himself an easy target by repeatedly using the term, “f—ing n—-r.” The pro wrestling icon subsequently apologized, telling People magazine, “Eight years ago I used offensive language during a conversation. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language; there is no excuse for it; and I apologize for having done it. … This is not who I am. I believe very strongly that every person in the world is important and should not be treated differently based on race, gender, orientation, religious beliefs or otherwise.”

Key moments in Hulk Hogan’s career as wrestler turned TV star

His racist comments about the Rock and black wrestlers were captured on a sex tape that’s the center of an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media.

Brooke Hogan agrees that her father is being misunderstood. “My dad’s best friends with Mr. T, he’s best friends with Dennis Rodman, he’s not racist,” she told “ET.” “It’s just when you’re mad and you’re at the lowest point in your life … you just choose ill-fitting words for that situation just to air your shorts out.”

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“He’s so nice to everybody,” the 27-year-old pop singer added. “He doesn’t talk like that, which is what was so strange about it.”

Brooke Hogan then acknowledged how damaging her father’s words were to his career, but veered into a decidedly odd discussion of reverse racism.

“I feel bad for my dad, but I also feel bad for the African American fans and stuff because they don’t know that he didn’t mean it,” she told the television show. “You know, it would be offensive.

“But this is something that we have to put a stop to every day, because I’ll be honest with you, I’ve had a black guy call me a honkey, and I’ve also been told that white people smell like bologna. I don’t take offense to it, I just laughed at it.”

“I don’t support what he said,” Brooke Hogan clarified to “ET.” However, she now may have sparked a new discussion about what she said. Bologna, really?

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