Stephen A. Smith
Stephen A. Smith, a black ESPN commentator with a history of issuing scathing rants during his broadcasts, weighed in on the recent “Black Lives Matter’ fiasco with Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley, telling his television audience: All lives really do matter.
He also ranted on the seeming double standard of black-on-black crime, citing puzzlement at the failure of media members and activists to rally and protest in these cases to the same degree they do for white-on-black crimes.
His comments were in context of discussing former Maryland Gov. O’Malley’s claim during a recent speech interrupted by “Black Lives Matter” protests that all lives matter – and then his quick apology when confronted by activists of the perceived offensiveness of his claim.
O’Malley’s actual statement was this: “That was a mistake on my part and I meant no disrespect. I did not mean to be insensitive in any way or communicate that I did not understand the tremendous passion, commitment and feeling and depth of feeling that all of us should be attaching to this issue.”
But Smith said O’Malley should have stuck with his original claim that all lives matter.
For roughly six minutes, Smith ranted, Raw Story reported: “Where’s the noise about all black lives matter when black folks are killing black folks? You see, that’s where you lose me … So we mandate that folks say black lives matter. But we got black folks dying at the hands of black folks. There’s nothing wrong with highlighting that all lives matter. That’s not a reason for somebody to be booed.”
A year ago, Smith caused a national discussion over comments he made about football’s Ray Rice, who was captured on video knocking out his fiancee in a hotel elevator.
In a July 2014 broadcast, Smith first said men “have no business putting your hands on a woman.” But he then seemed almost to caveat that in a rambling statement that many took as a suggestion violence against women is sometimes warranted.
“But what I’ve tried to employ the female members of my family, some of who you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this what, I’ve done this all my life, let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions,” he said then, USA Today reported. “So let’s try to make sure that we can do our part in making sure that that doesn’t happen.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/black-espn-star-all-lives-do-matter/
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