{"id":1137,"date":"2017-09-14T14:52:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackartinamerica.ndorsglobal.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2017-09-23T20:11:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T20:11:30","slug":"tell-espn-that-you-stand-with-jemele-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=1137","title":{"rendered":"Tell ESPN that you stand with Jemele Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday night on Twitter, ESPN SportsCenter host Jemele Hill called Donald Trump \u201ca white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself with other white supremacists.\u201d\u00a0Because of this, ESPN has publicly reprimanded her and the White House has taken the unprecedented step of calling for her to be fired – a clear assault on the First Amendment.<\/strong>\u00a01<\/sup>\u00a02<\/sup><\/p>\n

Tell ESPN that you stand with Jemele Hill<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What Hill said wasn\u2019t a partisan statement, it is an inescapable truth that has been acknowledged and written about extensively by countless other journalists.<\/strong>\u00a0Trump is a man that pals around with avowed White Nationalists, even employing them in the White House. A man who outright refuses to condemn the actions of neo-nazis in Charlottesville and has retweeted graphics from White nationalists accounts. A man whose real estate company was sued multiple times by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent to Black people.<\/p>\n

ESPN has shown that above all else that they desperately want to “stick to sports” and keep hard truths out of sight. But this is naive.\u00a0Politics have always been in sports<\/strong>: from Jesse Owens to Jackie Robinson to John Carlos and Tommie Smith to the US and Soviet boycotts of the Olympics. This has been particularly true about race because sports in this country disproportionately rely on the labor of young black men. Labor that often leaves them disfigured, in chronic pain, or with life altering brain injuries.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s efforts to silence Jemele Hill for making a political statement are also extremely hypocritical.<\/strong>\u00a0This year, they re-hired Hank Williams, Jr., to sing their Monday Night Football theme song.3<\/sup>\u00a0Williams\u2019 return comes six years after ESPN fired him from the job for comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler.4<\/sup>\u00a0Williams has also written songs like \u201cIf the South woulda won,\u201d glorifying the Confederacy and waxing poetic about a return to lynchings.\u00a0How is it possible that a man like Hank Williams Jr, who sings about \u201ctaking back Miami\u201d from immigrants, is not politically problematic, but a Black woman pointing out clear and present white supremacy is?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tell ESPN that you stand with Jemele Hill<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Race is an issue that ESPN has never been comfortable with and it shows with their tone deaf coverage of Colin Kaepernick, their ridiculous decision to remove Asian broadcaster Robert Lee from the UVA football game, and now their silencing of Jemele Hill.<\/strong>5<\/sup><\/p>\n

Since Trump\u2019s election, many news outlets have embraced their status as arbiters of truth in the face of Trump\u2019s reliance on \u201calternative facts\u201d to cultivate a climate of fear. But not ESPN. Instead, they have doubled down on normalizing the type of environment that brought Trump to power. In recent weeks, \u201cthe Worldwide Leader in Sports\u201d pushed the false narrative that the NFL\u2019s declining ratings are due to players protesting police violence in their communities, regurgitated NFL owner\u2019s talking points about why Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed, and even ran a fantasy football segment after Charlottesville that looked like a pre-Civil War slave auction.6<\/sup><\/p>\n

But this not a time for craven attempts to \u201cstick to sports\u201d or be “neutral” because “unity” doesn’t work when one group is denying another’s right to exist.<\/strong>\u00a0The need for Black voices in journalism that take on racism and openly talk about it is more urgent than ever.<\/p>\n

Tell ESPN that you stand with Jemele Hill<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Until justice is real,<\/p>\n

— Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, Jade, Anika, Corina, the rest of the Color Of Change team.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

1. “Black Public Figures Are Being Silenced for Calling Out White Supremacy,” The Root, 13 September 2017.\u00a0https:\/\/act.colorofchange.org\/go\/8848?t=9&akid=7899%2E1756002%2EW18gJ2<\/a><\/p>\n

2. \u201cESPN Host Committed \u2018Fireable Offense\u2019 With Trump \u2018White Supremacist\u2019 Tweet: White House Aide,\u201d Huffington Post, 13 September 2017.\u00a0http:\/\/act.colorofchange.org\/go\/8849?t=11&akid=7899%2E1756002%2EW18gJ2<\/a><\/p>\n

3. \u201cESPN is bringing back Hank Williams Jr. to \u2018Monday Night Football,\u2019 for some reason,\u201d SB Nation, 5 June 2017.\u00a0https:\/\/act.colorofchange.org\/go\/8850?t=13&akid=7899%2E1756002%2EW18gJ2<\/a><\/p>\n

4. \u201cESPN Permanently Drops Football Pregame Song,\u201d New York Times, 6 October 2011.\u00a0http:\/\/act.colorofchange.org\/go\/8851?t=15&akid=7899%2E1756002%2EW18gJ2<\/a><\/p>\n

5. \u201cESPN Pulls Announcer Robert Lee From Virginia Game Because of His Name,\u201d New York Times, 23 August 2017.\u00a0https:\/\/act.colorofchange.org\/go\/8852?t=17&akid=7899%2E1756002%2EW18gJ2<\/a><\/p>\n

6. \u201cESPN apologizes for fantasy football segment compared to slave auction,\u201d CNN, 15 August 2015.\u00a0http:\/\/act.colorofchange.org\/go\/8853?t=19&akid=7899%2E1756002%2EW18gJ2<\/a><\/p>\n

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Color Of Change<\/a>\u00a0is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change.\u00a0Help keep our movement strong.<\/a><\/p>\n

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