Stephen A. Smith has done it again.
Rather than limiting is typical anti- black rhetoric to an individual at a time or perhaps a small group, Stephen A. Smith has decided to not only disrespect an entire country but in fact he has now drawn the ire of an entire continent.
To bring you up to speed , the Nigerian national basketball team defeated Team USA 90-87 in a major upset , albeit in an exhibition game, on Saturday evening.
Well Smith was all in his feelings about the loss and it was the fuel for him to launch into this rancor-dripped tirade in which he showed contempt for the brothers on the Nigerian team by not even respecting them enough to learn much less pronounce their names correctly, referring to them dismissively as if they are a bunch of nobodies.
Here is the rant below ( the disrespect commences at the 2:34 mark) :
Smith’s tasteless behavior caused him to get lambasted online, not only from Nigerians but from people from all over the diaspora and even those outside of it as well.
Then SAS responded with this tweet, a meandering menagerie of 225 characters that seem to be terrible attempt to justify and rationalize his actions.
Compare that to the apology( the fact that he issued it and the speed at which it was done) he issued for his comments on baseball player Shohei Ohtani and it becomes just another example of the contempt that Smith has for intelligent black society. He said his comments pertaining to Ohtani were “insensitive and regrettable”, but yet there was no such contrition when it came to the Nigerian basketball players. Where is their apology?
Where was the apology for Kevin Durant when he threatened KD on national television? Did he not find those actions regrettable?
Kwame Brown was the butt of countless jokes and insults from Smith for nearly two decades and when Brown finally responded, rather than showing a modicum of contrition for his years of pejoratives, he doubled down and puts out a blooper reel on the man.
As usual , the media has their complicity when it comes to the disrespect of black people by the mere fact the Ohtani story has gotten far more run than the Nigeria comments. Smith’s employer ESPN has shown they find this perfectly acceptable as they have never meted out any sort of punishment for belittling black athletes.
Should he suffer some negative repercussions for the Ohtani comments and not the Nigerian ones it proves that for Smith , and the media as a whole, that when it comes to disrespecting black people it is always open season and there are never any consequences.
