The Ugliness of Fans

In tandem with my most recent post about the fans of sports dictating the magnitude of future athletes coming out as gay, I anticipate some questions arising. In my last post, I stated how I believe fans can sway an athletes decision to declare sexual orientation if negative. Where I believe some might disagree with me, is the common "they would never do that." In fact, some fans do. Which is why there is reason to worry.

On the account of race, some fans around the world have been outspokenly racist. The worst part, is that it is during the games in which they are racist. During the game is when a player should be worrying about the game itself and not feel threatened due to the color of his skin, or in this more recent case, his sexual orientation. Nevertheless, fans continue to defy acceptance, instead comparing black players to monkeys.

This was a banner displayed at a Russian soccer game in response to the acquisition of a black player. Clearly displayed in the middle of the banner is a banana, relating the newly acquired black player to a monkey. 

Even in this image, a fan is striking a monkey pose, directed at the black player in the image. These hate crimes cannot keep occurring. Not only does it make black players feel, without a question of a doubt, unsafe, but it deters players from playing in those leagues all together due to fear. 

This is the fear that may decide whether or not many athletes declare as gay in major professional American sports. Given, these images were from overseas. Hopefully Americans are more tolerant when an active major professional athlete comes into their stadium. If they are treated like any other athlete should be while playing the game, the successes could be outstanding. If not though, it would be a true shame and a significant blemish on the tolerance and acceptance of America. 

Are American fans different from those overseas? What do you think will happen when a rostered player comes out as gay and plays in front of opposing fans?