“The only reason it bothers me is that it seems like it’s the accepted way of calling people the n-word nowadays. … What’s the definition of a thug, really? Can a guy on the football field, just talking to people — maybe I’m talking loudly, or doing something I’m not supposed to be. But there was a hockey game where they didn’t even play hockey, they just threw the puck aside and started fighting. I saw that and I thought, ‘Oh man, I’m a thug?’ So I’m really disappointed in being called a thug.”
On Monday, the interview and the reaction it sparked remained a hot topic of conversation. As measured by iQ Media1, the word “thug” was uttered more times on U.S. television on Monday, 625, than it had been on any other day in three years, reported Deadspin. According to iQ Media1 findings, the Boston television market led the nation with 36 uses on Monday.
Sherman grew up in Compton. His father has worked as a trash man there for 30 years. He says he fought his whole life to lose the “thug” stereotype, and it’s a shame it’s coming back now:
“I know some thugs and they know I’m the furthest thing from a thug. I’ve fought that my whole life, just coming from where I come from. Just because you hear Compton, you heard Watts, cities like that you think, ‘Thug. He’s a gangster. He’s this, that, and the other.’ And then you hear Stanford and that doesn’t make sense, it’s an oxymoron. To fight it for so long, and have to hear it come up again, it’s frustrating.”
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