After the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50, fans took to the street and a “peaceful” celebration turned into a riot with 12 people arrested. Major media outlets seem to have blacked out the event because images of the riot have not been plastered across TV screens and social media outlets.
Here is the video of the incident from The Denver Channel:
Sports riots are common in cities where a team either wins or loses. While Black people who riot over the multitude of social injustices in the country are called “animals” or “savages,” white rioters in these sports riots are given a slap on the wrist and not dehumanized.
Here are some major examples of the double standard. After the 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series, San Francisco Giants fans took to the streets, flipped buses and caused major damage.
Photo by Jessica Christian / The Chronicle
In 2011, during the Jerry Sandusky child molestation investigation into Penn State University, fans who supported Coach Joe Paterno after he was fired took to the streets to riot.
After a 2015 college football championship, Ohio State fans were responsible for an estimated 90 fires.
That same year, University of Kentucky fans destroyed property after their Final Four loss. There were 31 arrests, according to the New York Daily News.
These riots are just a small sample of the double standards and racial undertones at play in news coverage. These events of dangerous property damage and arson involved majority-white crowds, while “riots” in Baltimore and Ferguson happened after incidents of social injustice in poor Black communities.
The coverage is always different. It also shows the real ugliness of racial bias and white privilege many in the dominant society are oblivious to.
