Here is a twitter post from a white Ex NFL legend Bill Romanowski. This tweet was to Cam Newton about the way Cam reacted to the pres after the game. This tweet is being re tweeted and starting huge arguments around the world because of the way he used the word "Boy" at the end of his tweet. Using that word the way he did is very racist in everyone's eyes. Someone commented to this post saying " Never, not once, in my life have I seen a white quarterback (the league MVP in the Super Bowl no less) called boy.
This is not even disguised racism. It's just racist. Period.
Pure ugliness.
PS: In case you didn't know, this came from an NFL legend."
This shows the lack of respect and racism that still exist even in the sports world, and because the African American players has no respect from the NFL this guy was brave enough to be racist and Tag Cam Newton in this post.
Just to add onto that -- I've found several articles from 2010, after Peyton Manning lost Super Bowl XLIV with the Colts. After the game, Manning didn't shake hands with the Saints. In contrast to this Tweet about Cam Newton, Manning was applauded in these articles for his passion for the game. Rather than his actions being seen as childish, they were seen as admirable.
ReplyDeleteHere's an example of one of the articles I found: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Peyton-Manning-storms-off-Super-Bowl-field-Is-h?urn=nfl,218314
Wow, both this post and the comment are fascinating. I think that there is probably a lot more racism in sports coverage than we think - something that I will look out for from now on.
DeleteThe word "boy" does carry a really negative and perhaps racist connotation - I'm disgusted that a man of this prestige in the NFL used social media to attack another player.
I really enjoyed this post, Dell! I agree that the word boy carries very racist and loaded meaning. There is a lot of discourse on the black quarterback in the NFL, and particularly how the media paints them. The media uses stereotypes, especially this idea of an "angry black man," to describe black NFL QBs. You can see how detrimental privilege is in these tweets.
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