Is "Thug" an overused term with racial undertones?

Sun Devil

Death and Taxes
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.
 
I personally think fool and classless jerk are racist. thug is not. Why? Because I said so.

Also, getting into stanford as a football player is like bush getting into yale. That doesn't imply anything about his intelligence one way or the other.
 
1) fvck Sherman

2) communications is the athletes major

3) thuggish behavior is thuggish behavior regardless of who does it
 
Sherman is anything but!
He plays up the trash talking because he succeeds in intimidating opponents.
But come on, the country is racist as fuck, so faux outrage is not appropriate.
 
No. Thug has nothing racial about it. Basically a thug is a jerk with more violence, it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with actions. Unless you think "jerk" has something to do with race also?
 
I personally think fool and classless jerk are racist. thug is not. Why? Because I said so.

Also, getting into stanford as a football player is like bush getting into yale. That doesn't imply anything about his intelligence one way or the other.

Dah Fuq? Is that your final answer?
 
No. Thug has nothing racial about it.


It may not "seem racist" but it has racist undertones. Most of the times people being called thugs are generally people of color. Again nobody answered my question: Why aren't Hockey Players called thugs?
 
It may not "seem racist" but it has racist undertones. Most of the times people being called thugs are generally people of color. Again nobody answered my question: Why aren't Hockey Players called thugs?

Um... They are. Specifically the thugs they hire... a thug is a jerk with a bit more violence. That's it. It isn't racial it's all about action. What you do makes you a thug, and it isn't race.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/897210-nhl-video-50-biggest-thugs-in-hockey-history
 
1) fvck Sherman

2) communications is the athletes major

3) thuggish behavior is thuggish behavior regardless of who does it


But the actual term "thug" relates to violent behavior. All he did was trash talk about Crabtree. Did you miss the part where he went to Crabtree to shake his hand and he (Crabtree) didn't?
 
But the actual term "thug" relates to violent behavior. All he did was trash talk about Crabtree. Did you miss the part where he went to Crabtree to shake his hand and he (Crabtree) didn't?

I'm not calling Sherman a thug. As a 49ers fan I will say fvck Sherman and I don't give two shits what race he is.
 
Um... They are. Specifically the thugs they hire... a thug is a jerk with a bit more violence. That's it. It isn't racial it's all about action. What you do makes you a thug, and it isn't race.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/897210-nhl-video-50-biggest-thugs-in-hockey-history

No that isn't even a clear or coherent definition. Sports is violent period. Adrenaline is the chemical that drives many players over the edge, some find balance, others overreact. It's ok that you refuse to acknowledge that typically players of color or those who express themselves in erratic fashion who are of color as well are typically targeted for this type of criticism. Hockey players are rarely called thugs. There lies the paradigm where erratic degenerate behavior is often attributed to people of color.

Thugs by definition are people who are violent and that treats others in violent fashion. Football is violent in it of itself. Any contact sport is violent. But "thuggery" involves criminal activity. What Sherman did was trash talk which is common in sports. People may say it's "unsportsman like" but most players who play contact sports are unsportsman like, that is how some get an edge over an opponent. Regardless how you view the man, no violent criminal who continues to be violent goes to Stanford. Say what you will about what his major is but most football players don't finish college. He did.

The word thug is simply overused and I rarely find white players being labeled thugs. If that is the case, please prove recently a white player, or hell a white kid was called a thug by people. Not just by the media I'm talking about people who go on social media and call someone white a thug.
 
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