Out of all the ism, Racism is the one that people like to turn a blind eye to.
How many times have you heard the following phrases when it comes to racism.
“Get over it!”
“Slavery was a long time ago.”
“Black people are the real racists”
“What if there was a White Sports Online, that would be racist!!!”
It is always a deflection, because frankly when something doesn’t affect you, it is easy to dismiss it, but it goes deeper than that. When something actually benefits you, of course you aren’t going to go out of your way to denounce it.
Donald Trump is a white supremacist.
You know who that benefits it, powerful white people. You know who runs media, powerful white males. So, it isn’t shocking that ESPN when a black woman who is more than qualified to speak on white supremacy accurately points out the President is one, was quickly thrown under the bus. It isn’t shocking that the actual white supremacists in the White House tried to get her fired.
It isn’t shocking that same black woman speaking about a POWERFUL WHITE MAN threatening his black players like he was a slave owner was quickly suspended by her company.
But what happens when a white woman speaks out about sexism, not of the president or an NFL owner, but people that her own company has decided to get in business with?
Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly) pic.twitter.com/AzgfdDx2FK
— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) October 16, 2017
For the record I’ve met Big Cat and PFT Commenter a few times and I like them, my opinion on Barstool as a whole isn’t really relevant to the point I am trying to make. No one forced ESPN to give them a show, no one forced them to be bought out for millions of dollars
As I have always said, don’t blame the supplier, blame the user. If you don’t like Barstool or how they do things, your beef shouldn’t be with them. ESPN came to them, not the other way around. They are very clear about who they are and frankly it has been very successful for them.
We can debate on what that say about society as a whole, but that is a discussion for another day. How did ESPN react to Ponder essentially trying to derail a show ESPN paid a lot of money for that was going to debut in less than 24 hours?
WITH UNWAVERING SUPPORT!!
“The comments about Sam Ponder were offensive and inappropriate, and we understand her reaction. She is a valued colleague and doing a great job for us. As stated previously, we do not control the content of Barstool Sports. We are doing a show with Big Cat and PFT, and we do have final say on the content of that show.”
What audience does ESPN believe is going to watch Big Cat and PFT? What audience are they trying to bring in? We aren’t idiots, they don’t want to be associated with the Barstool content, but they want the Barstool legion of fans.
How hypocritical can you be?
I am not saying Sam Ponder should be suspended, what I am saying is ESPN’s true colors are showing and they are LILY WHITE.
The social media policy isn’t consistent. You can’t suspend someone for speaking very intelligently about a news story because you say she might have offended advertisers and then totally support someone trying to sabotage show your company has been promoting hard for the last week.
You can’t try to disassociate yourself from a brand when you hire 2 of the their most popular talents and do a show that is specific to that brand. Don’t insult our intelligence, you hired Barstool talent, so you are complicit in wanting the Barstool audience who totally agrees that Sam Ponder and other women in media are hired to just get men hard. Don’t sugarcoat things behind BS PR statements, just be honest. You are losing that part of your audience and you need Barstool to help regardless of who they might have offended in the past. You suspended Jemele Hill because you are afraid a black woman with too strong of black voice will upset a portion of your racist fan base, who are strongly aligned with Donald Trump.
That is the truth, don’t run for it and if you do, I am going to catch you and spell it out for people.
This is bigger than Barstool, Jemele Hill and Sam Ponder.
This is world showing once again the Black Woman no matter how intelligent and valuable they are is will always be the lowest on the totem pole in a world filled with white supremacy.