University of Texas head football coach Tom Herman said that there is a “double standard” by fans toward black student-athletes.
Herman said that while fans might cheer on black student-athletes on the field, off the field fans can treat them entirely differently. “Can the average fan relate? No, they can’t,” In an interview with Austin American-Statesman’s Brian Davis. “There’s a double standard maybe a little bit. We’re going to pack 100,000 people into DKR and millions watch on TV that are predominantly white — not all of them certainly, but most of ’em white. We’re gonna cheer when they score touchdowns, and we’re gonna hug our buddy when they get sacks or an interception. But we gonna let them date our daughter? Are we going to hire them in a position of power in our company? That’s the question I have for America. You can’t have it both ways. And if you’re going to cheer them and love them for three-and-a-half hours a Saturday in the fall, you better have the same feelings for them off the field, because they’re human beings. They deserve the same amount of respect and human rights that all of us do in this country when we agreed on the social contract to be a member of the United States.”
Herman’s comments come on the heels of Black Lives Matter protests across the United States following the death of an unarmed black man in George Floyd by a white police officer.
