News Anchor Uses Opportunity to Fight Racism

Dale Hansen is a sports reporter for the Dallas/Fort Worth WFAA-TV station. Through his employment, thousands of people every week see his sports coverage and opinions, and he took the opportunity to not only provide his input on a situation, but educate on why racism is still prevalent and how we can overcome it. He took a risk that is not only extremely important, but one that should be taken more by people with the opportunity to impact so many.  

The story he covered was of an incident at Flower Mound High School. During a basketball game last week in Texas, student fans of the Flower Mound team were broadcasted holding signs that read "white power". While the students had their signs taken away, Hansen felt that it was not sufficient in teaching the students their lesson. He elaborated that it was not the students fault, but rather their parents, teachers, administrators, and coaches for influencing them. Hansen explained that racism doesn’t get developed by kids, but from their surroundings.

Bringing up a story about his childhood, Hansen explains how he was once like those kids. He speaks about how he was "raised by a man who used the n-word like it was a proper noun." In the small Iowa town in which he was raised there was one black family. His father liked that family but, felt “all the others he didn't know, they were the bad people".

He ends his segment with a powerful quote from Albert Einstein. “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. He acknowledges not everyone will change, but he thinks there is the ability to change when kids are exposed to a new environment. At the shows conclusion he says, “I’ll answer the emails tomorrow” to which his fellow anchor responds, “You’ll likely have a full inbox ”.

He knows the consequence of his actions and some of the negative response he will receive. However he still tries to make a point with a great arguement and personal anecdote. We need more opinionated news anchors using their power to change rather than just faces reading the teleprompter.