After months of not being allowed to watch their favorite teams in person during the pandemic, sports fans are back at stadiums — and so is bad fan behavior. Last week, a Knicks fan appeared to spit on an Atlanta Hawks player at Madison Square Garden. Last weekend, Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving had a bottle thrown at him. And those are just a couple of recent examples of fans misbehaving and abusing players.

Professor Amira Rose Davis teaches history and African-American studies at Penn State University, and co-hosts the sports podcast "Burn It All Down." She says to understand what's going on, we need to look at the racial dynamic at play. She spoke with WNYC's Morning Edition host Michael Hill.