A Voice of Conscience in Sports World
ESPN Reporter Calls Trump a “White Supremacist”

September 13, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader:

The shit hit the fan on Tuesday, September 12, after Jemele Hill, an anchor on ESPN’s SC6 (SportsCenter at 6) news show, tweeted out on Monday that Donald Trump is a “white supremacist.”

Hill has been known for not shying away from politics in her commentaries.

She began her tweets about Trump by first going after singer Kid Rock, a supporter of the fascist Trump/Pence regime, by responding to his tweet that he was thinking about running for the U.S. Senate and claiming he “loves black people,” and then accused the “extreme left” of “trying to use the old confederate flag BS” to label him a racist. Hill responded by tweeting out, “He loves black people so much that he pandered to racists by using a flag that unquestionably stands for dehumanizing black people.”

The Twitter thread by Hill continued after she was attacked for her tweet about Kid Rock. She posted her Trump tweets in reply to them:

• “Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.”
• “Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period.”
• “He is unqualified and unfit to be president. He is not a leader. And if he were not white, he never would have been elected.”
• “Donald Trump is a bigot. Glad you could live with voting for him. I couldn’t, because I cared about more than just myself.”
• “The height of white privilege is being able to ignore this white supremacy, because it’s of no threat to you. Well, it’s a threat to me.”

Hill then was barraged with racist and anti-woman tweets calling her a “nigger” and a “bitch.” The white supremacist supporters of Trump, including Breitbart and Fox News, called for ESPN to fire her. ESPN tried to throw her under the bus when they “disavowed” what she said, and put out a statement, “We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate.” 

Then on Wednesday September 13 the White House called for ESPN to fire Hill—Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to a question about the tweets by saying “That's one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make and certainly something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN.”

But broadly from athletes, Hill immediately got support from Colin Kaepernick, who tweeted out, “We are with you @jemelehill.” Deadspin.com reported, “ESPN Issues Craven Apology For Jemele Hill’s Accurate Descriptions Of Donald Trump.” Reggie Miller, former NBA basketball all-star, tweeted out, “I’m on team @jemelehill...” Current NBA all-star Dwayne Wade responded to Miller’s tweet with, “Sign me up!”

Hill, who grew up in poverty-ridden Detroit, has continuously brought politics into sports.

Earlier this year, Hill was reporting on Colin Kaepernick not currently being signed by an NFL team because of his political views by refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and murders against Black people. In reporting that Kaepernick had compared the cops of today with “slave patrols,” she said the comparison of police to “slave patrols” was “inflammatory, but historically accurate.”

After she was attacked for bringing politics into sports and ESPN was attacked as being liberal, she gave an interview to Yahoo.com (See https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sportscenter-anchor-jemele-hill-espns-politics-athletes-dragging-us-193537563.html)

I just had to notice the correlation between us being called more liberal as you see more women in a position on our network... as you see more ethnic diversity, then all of a sudden ESPN is too liberal. So I wonder, when people say that, what they’re really saying. ... The other part of it is that we’re journalists, and people have to understand, these uncomfortable political conversations... the athletes are dragging us here. I didn’t ask Colin Kaepernick to kneel. He did it on his own. So, was I supposed to act like he didn’t? Gregg Popovich, every week at his press conferences, is having a 10-minute soliloquy on Donald Trump. Am I supposed to act like he’s not doing that? You have athletes saying they’re going to the White House, not going to the White House, that’s all sports news. It didn’t just start with this generation of athletes, it’s always been that way. Sometimes when I hear a viewer say they don’t want their politics mixed with sports, I say, “What did you think about Muhammad Ali?” And then all of a sudden it’s glowing praise.

In another interview she said:

Whether we want to discuss it or not, athletes are dragging us into these conversations. It’s not that Mike [her co-host, Michael Smith] and I wake up one day and say, “Hey, today we’re going to be MSNBC.” It’s usually based off a news story that is relevant to sports.

If ESPN attempts to suspend or fire Jemele Hill for telling the truth, people need to come to her defense in a big way.

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