Texas Sports Anchor Dale Hansen Delivers Stirring Anti-Racism Speech On Air

The Texas sports anchor who defended Michael Sam in a viral clip has delivered another rousing speech on air -- this time, against racism.

Dale Hansen of ABC's Dallas affiliate WFAA used a recent "Unplugged" segment to denounce the display of two fan signs at a local high school basketball game that together read "White Power." According to the Dallas Morning News, one current Flower Mound High School student and one former student were implicated in the incident, which happened when Flower Mound hosted Plano East. District officials said the signs were up for about 30 seconds.

Hansen, who last February expressed disbelief at the ugly reaction to Sam coming out as gay prior to the 2014 NFL Draft, got more personal this time. "I used to be one of those kids," he declared, describing how he had to unlearn the prejudice of a father who used a racial slur "like it was a proper noun."

"Kids have to be taught to hate," Hansen said. "And it's our parents and grandparents and our teachers and coaches, too, who teach us to hate. Kids become the product of that environment; I was and they are."

But Hansen held out hope for the young sign perpetrators and others like them, saying, "That ignorance will be replaced someday by the wisdom they learn when they live in the real world, when they meet the people who don't look like them, didn't grow up the way they did. The people who make this life worth living."

H/T For The Win