This is incorrect, of course.
You can certainly be nice to black people and still be a racist or say racist things. Especially if you are around black people all the time, like NFL coaches.
I think Richard Sherman said it best when speaking about Nick Bosa.
“One thing about football is that nobody really cares what you say if you can play,” Sherman told The Bee “At the end of the day, I think a guy that has played with African Americans his whole life, not saying he can’t be racist, but they know how to maneuver around African Americans.
“When you’re at Ohio State, it’s not like Ohio State’s an all-white school. So I don’t think that’s going to ever be an issue,” Sherman said. “I think, at the end of the day, your beliefs are your beliefs … but when you’re in the building, and you’re a football player, and you’re a teammate, you handle yourself accordingly. And I think he understands that.”
I don’t know if Jon Gruden is racist, and I am sure he has done many nice things for black people like Aqib Talib, but that doesn’t change what he said in the emails.
I believe as black people, there are times, even if we believe someone who has been nice to us, that we just sit things out because we have been oppressed for some long it is almost like we have Stockholm syndrome.
Just because someone is nice to you doesn’t mean they don’t have certain feelings about your race that you don’t know about.
I doubt Aqib Talib meant any harm, but you don’t see any gay people coming out and caping for Jon Gruden do you? There is a reason for that.
That is just something to think about.
Flip the page to see Talib’s full comments.