Is "Thug" an overused term with racial undertones?

Google: "Obama thug" and "g.w. bush thug" and prepare to be enlightened.

Page after page of right-wing articles about the "thuggish" Obama vs. a few random ones about bush.

And look how quickly the RW spin machine went into action calling Trayvon Martin a thug.

So while I don't "thug" is racist as a rule, I do think people are quicker to use the term for blacks than for any other race or nationality.
 
Superfreak said:
Again... what Sherman did could easily be seen as thuggish by those that have never experienced that adrenaline rush. He was loud, abrasive and demeaned another player... Taken out of context... it is understandable.
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No, it can't easily been seen as "thuggish." That's the problem. Labeling him a thug based on that snippet of time is the kind of thing racists do.
 
Sun Devil said:
Briefly from Forbes:

"1. So the Seahawks beat the 49ers to go to the Super Bowl, and Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman made the game-saving play, and Erin Andrews interviewed him on the field immediately after the game, and he hollered like a crazy person:

2. Within seconds people on social media were calling him a fool, a thug, a classless jerk and many worse things.


3. Sherman is black, and so of course there was an undercurrent of race to some — OK, a lot — of the discussion.

4. Sherman graduated second in his class in high school and also graduated from Stanford. So not only is he not a fool, odds are he’s smarter than you and me.


5. His degree from Stanford was in communications … which might explain why, while he seemed to be hollering like a crazy person, he didn’t curse and looked into the camera the whole time.

6. In other words, he might have just been auditioning for the WWE.

7. Maybe 15 minutes later, when Sherman sat down with the Fox NFL guys, he was calm and funny.

8. If you stick a microphone in a football player’s face seconds after he made a huge play to send his team to the Super Bowl, you shouldn’t be surprised if he’s a little amped up."

See the rest at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tommyto...houghts-about-that-richard-sherman-interview/

To be honest, I personally think the term thug has been overused for a long time. I noticed when the huge fight between the pacers and the knicks broke up back in the late 90's (or early 00's I forget) people referred to the actions of the players as "thugs." Yet, when Hockey players fight nobody calls them thugs because "it's apart of the game." I really tend to think that these terms are largely used towards men of color especially when they display erratic behavior. Despite what he did, he did something good for the game. He not only created a buzz around his name but he will also have people watching the Superbowl in hopes of watching him lose which creates more ratings. What he did was a major boost to the NFL.
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Interesting. That dude freaked me out during the interview. He looked and acted just like King Neanderthal of Subculture, USA.
 
Superfreak said:
again... dung just likes to envision himself as superior to those that mock others for their choice in schools, teams, etc... my guess is that he lost his man card a long time ago and doesn't like being reminded that some still have theirs.
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RUNE / DENIED
man-cardw448h260.jpg
 
christiefan915 said:
Google: "Obama thug" and "g.w. bush thug" and prepare to be enlightened.

Page after page of right-wing articles about the "thuggish" Obama vs. a few random ones about bush.

And look how quickly the RW spin machine went into action calling Trayvon Martin a thug.

So while I don't "thug" is racist as a rule, I do think people are quicker to use the term for blacks than for any other race or nationality.
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I googled both and found 868,000 for Obama and 423,000 for Bush, so I'm not sure how you categorize this as a "random few".
The rest is just you expressing your bleeding heart.
 
Here's Sherman's take on it. I mean, he's black so his opinion doesn't really hold the gravitas Superfreak's does...but I did find it interesting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/richard-sherman-thug-n-word-press-conference_n_4646871.html

I thought there were some good points being made in the comments sections about sticking cameras in these guy's faces mere moments after they get off the field and are still very fired up and competitive. You don't come down from that in a minute or two.

To me this is a bunch of bullshit. You have sports "heros" who rape women, beat their girlfriends, beat their wives...and people are talking about this nonsense?

He seems like a nice kid. Wake me up when he rapes a girl in a bar bathroom.
 
My problem with Sherman is on several levels. I have always preferred the class acts like Edgar Martinez and Russell Wilson. Lou Gehrig was my all-time favorite baseball player. As a Seattle fan, I would prefer not to have Sherman doing things that hurt the Seahawks image. I also hold the guys coming out of Stanford (Sherman) and Notre Dame (Tate, who also has some attitude problems) to guys who began their college career in bumbfuck North Carolina (Wilson, although he did advance to Wisconsin, and has been an incredible class act).

That said, he is usually entertaining rather than embarrassing, and as Darla pointed out, you can't compare him to the players who normally make the headlines for bad reasons.
 
Threedee said:
My problem with Sherman is on several levels. I have always preferred the class acts like Edgar Martinez and Russell Wilson. Lou Gehrig was my all-time favorite baseball player. As a Seattle fan, I would prefer not to have Sherman doing things that hurt the Seahawks image. I also hold the guys coming out of Stanford (Sherman) and Notre Dame (Tate, who also has some attitude problems) to guys who began their college career in bumbfuck North Carolina (Wilson, although he did advance to Wisconsin, and has been an incredible class act).

That said, he is usually entertaining rather than embarrassing, and as Darla pointed out, you can't compare him to the players who normally make the headlines for bad reasons.
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A lot of guys talk trash before games and during games and that's generally seen as acceptable (as long as one can back it up on the field/court etc.). After the game we generally expect to see good sportsmanship which is why Sherman's rant stands out. The thing with him is his team won the game and he made the game saving/winning play yet he was all pissed off (at Crabtree).

As a 49ers fan I think it was a punk move on his part (doesn't mean he is a punk) but I'm bitter because my team loss. But it doesn't surprise me that his interview might turn off fans for rooting for his team in the Super Bowl if they are just casually watching the game.
 
cawacko said:
A lot of guys talk trash before games and during games and that's generally seen as acceptable (as long as one can back it up on the field/court etc.). After the game we generally expect to see good sportsmanship which is why Sherman's rant stands out. The thing with him is his team won the game and he made the game saving/winning play yet he was all pissed off (at Crabtree).

As a 49ers fan I think it was a punk move on his part (doesn't mean he is a punk) but I'm bitter because my team loss. But it doesn't surprise me that his interview might turn off fans for rooting for his team in the Super Bowl if they are just casually watching the game.
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I'll also throw out there his interview probably won him some fans as well. Some people like trash talking and those that go against the norm.
 
One page of google articles tying Obama with the word "thug":

The left's thug ideology finds its ultimate spokesperson in President Obama.

Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday joined the mass of conservative voices criticizing President Barack Obama’s recent comments about the Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, calling the president a “thug” on the air.

Stunt at WW II Memorial Shows More Evidence Obama is a Thug

Obama and Thugs Pulled Off the Heist of the Century

Enter Barack Obama and Eric Holder and the rest of the thug squad approved by Valerie Jarrett, one of the arch villainesses in this piece.

Obama’s Tax Thugs

The move, Fischer declared, was illegal and unconstitutional, demonstrating that Obama is a "lawless president" who is like a "street thug"who takes a "perverse delight" in destroying America "just like juvenile delinquents just destroy stuff just for the sheer pleasure of destruction": -

Barack Obama and Chicago Thug Politics: Stealing Elections One at a Time

Meet the 'Bullies': Breitbart Editor Exposes Obama's Army of Thugs in New Book

Classic Example Of Obama’s Chicago Thug Politics…

"He's a Thug!" Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove Continue Attacks on Obama

Three pages of google articles tying g. w. bush with the word "thug":

George W. Bush's Thug Nation

Bush Is "Biggest Thug" Ever To Occupy White House, Historian Parenti Says

This makes him, obviously, the new George W. Bush, who played the thug so well for his own father’s presidential runs.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist...
 
A political "thug" is an entirely different thing. A politico is "thuggish" when they use power given them for governing to punish. You will often hear people calling the National Guard "Jack-Booted Thugs"... Which is again something different. The word "thug" pretty much means a violent person.

A sports thug is somebody who is overtly violent regardless of rules, in hockey they hire these guys to skate out and pretty much bang people up. This Sherman dude is not a thug. He's definitely one of the "me only" crowd, but has a chance to turn that around (and it looks like he just might).

A bit too much for a "I'm the bestest ever!" moment is what I would call the usage of "thug".

All that being said, the word itself does not evoke images of black dudes with their hat backwards to me.

Tupac defined a thug this way (from the urban dictionary):
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=thug

thug
As Tupac defined it, a thug is someone who is going through struggles, has gone through struggles, and continues to live day by day with nothing for them. That person is a thug. and the life they are living is the thug life. A thug is NOT a gangster. Look up gangster and gangsta. Not even CLOSE, my friend.

The regular dictionary defines it as a violent man, particularly a criminal. Getting hyped up on win and saying stupid stuff is not particularly criminal, it is just uncouth and foolish. And Tupac's definition doesn't fit. In what way is this kid a "thug"?
 
Threedee said:
My problem with Sherman is on several levels. I have always preferred the class acts like Edgar Martinez and Russell Wilson. Lou Gehrig was my all-time favorite baseball player. As a Seattle fan, I would prefer not to have Sherman doing things that hurt the Seahawks image. I also hold the guys coming out of Stanford (Sherman) and Notre Dame (Tate, who also has some attitude problems) to guys who began their college career in bumbfuck North Carolina (Wilson, although he did advance to Wisconsin, and has been an incredible class act).

That said, he is usually entertaining rather than embarrassing, and as Darla pointed out, you can't compare him to the players who normally make the headlines for bad reasons.
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I agree 3D. I am sick to my stomach when guys from "my teams" behave like that. I have liked Russel,Wilson from his very first interview. He had a mic shoved (and does all the time) in his face after the game and didn't respond similarly.
 
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