Richard Sherman
A theme that came up in the articles of Richard Sherman is the theme of society’s expectations of a black man. People believed that Sherman acted in a non professional way after the 49ers lost to the Seahawks. Sherman was a key to the Seahawk’s win and when he got interviewed by Erin Andrews he made it clear that he was the best cornerback, but in a very aggressive manner. Because he was a black man, people reacted to this in a negative way towards him. If this was a different scenario and it wasn’t a man of color, people would have different reactions and would not make it a much big of a deal. In Howard’s article, it says, “All this is based on the common, very American belief that black males must know their place, and more tellingly, that their place is somewhere different than that of whites. It's been etched into our cultural fabric that to act as anything but a loud, yet harmless buffoon or an immensely powerful, yet humble servant is overstepping.” Society thinks of people of color to be loud and aggressive like Richard Sherman acted in the interview and they use that as their excuse and evidence that this is how men of color behave.
These ideas and themes are something that we see every day and something that has not changed through out life. There are a lot of stereotypes that people want to differentiate from each other because of racism. Racism and ethnocentrism is something that has always existed. Not only this, but there is a double standard between white and black men. When a person of color yells from excitement it is considered arrogant and aggressive. However, when a white man shows the same excitement under the same circumstances he is encouraged and is supported through his success.
