Comments on: An Attack on Richard Sherman

By: cmr3991

cmr3991 — Thu, 08 May 2014 22:36:51 +0000

This makes me think about the post that Rachael made about the scene in Crash where Sandra Bullock grabs her husband when they pass 2 black men. There’s this belief that white women are frightened by black males. After the Richard Sherman a reporter or journalist tweeted something along the lines of “I would have been frightened if I was Erin Andrews tonight!”. An article discussing the racist responses to the interview quoted the her tweet and as I scrolled through the comments I found a comment from her stating that race had nothing to do with her tweet and that she wished for it to be removed by the author of the article. The tweet could have easily been a microinsult attributed do her implicit thought of black people as more dangerous or animalistic.

By: Ave.MariaLewis

Ave.MariaLewis — Fri, 02 May 2014 05:32:16 +0000

I really like this article, especially since ESPN is my second favorite channel. They were talking about this on the show first take when it all happened and a lot of your argument I saw in the show. I think you are right, in regards to your last comment. We often blame society because it is harder to directly blame and call out a person. But as individuals we HAVE to do better when it comes to dealing with issues of race and bashing a person of color, yet giving other races paces. This was around the same time of Justin Biebers issue and a lot of people gave him passes and even blamed the culture of rap for his actions, yet didn’t give a pass to Richard Sherman.

By: AmandaRG

AmandaRG — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 21:30:09 +0000

I feel like “society” or “how we are socialized” are always what we blame for the “ism”s (racism, sexism, heterosexism, agism, ablism, classism, etc.), which is true. But people make up societies. Individuals need to take responsibility for contributing to and enforcing (or breaking down) societal norms. All of the people who called Sherman an animal or said that Andrews looked scared are perpetuating racism. So I agree, I do not think it is fair to put all of the blame on Sherman; one person is not representative of an entire group and it’s unfair to say so. The people who made the stereotypical insults and accusations are to blame, in my opinion.

By: jena.verlin

jena.verlin — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:31:17 +0000

I think the result of Sherman’s interview is a perfect example of how pervasive race is in our society. We are so conscious of race and it’s social implications that we may overlook more simple (and potentially more valid) explanations of one’s behavior, such as Sherman being excited that he just won the superbowl! We ignore personal motives in favor of highlighting ones that relate an individual’s behavior to a social group, especially when that group is marginalized or oppressed. A white person would not be called out on being white for being excited, but a black person WAS called out for being animalistic, a trait classically relegated to blacks, when he was reasonably excited during an interview. You could never blame Sherman for his reaction and I think it is unfair to place the blame on him – can we blame society for how we reacted? Is that where the true blame lies?