Stephen A. Smith has two choices. Stand by his man and cope with the results, or apologize and maintain Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones accountable for previous and current racist allegations which have turn out to be too massive to disregard.
Select correctly, Stephen A., even when the stuff you’ve stated and completed previously recommend that you simply received’t. For the second time in lower than a yr, Jones’ problematic tone on race — which Smith dismissed — has been uncovered as previous and current habits.
Whereas the ramifications from Jim Trotter’s racial discrimination/retaliation lawsuit in opposition to the NFL proceed to happen, what shouldn’t be misplaced within the shuffle is the function Smith has performed on this — which is paying homage to Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Django Unchained — involving Jones.
Final November, the Washington Put up launched a damning report on Jones’ tenure because the NFL’s hottest proprietor. It detailed how Jones has led the league — and the Cowboys — to record-breaking income fashions with out ever hiring a Black coach in a majority-Black league.
It was an examination of how such a robust and charismatic man — whose groups have been carried by Black gamers — does so little in relation to range, regardless of understanding that he might affect different house owners to be on the correct facet of historical past.
Nonetheless, most individuals didn’t learn the story. They received caught up in a photograph that the story featured, an image of Jones from 1957 in Arkansas amongst a crowd of white college students, “standing on the frontlines of one in every of Little Rock’s darkest segregation clashes,” learn the report. On the time, white college students (and adults) have been exhibiting up at college entrances, often to hurl racial slurs in an try to intimidate Black college students in hopes of stopping them from getting into public colleges after the Brown v. Board determination.
“Jerry Jones has a possibility to make that image have a unique ending,” Ernest Inexperienced, a member of the Little Rock 9, stated on the time.
As anticipated, Jones’ excuse for being within the image was pathetic. “That was, gosh, 65 years in the past, and [I was a] curious child on the time,” he declared. “I didn’t know on the time the monumental occasion actually that was occurring. I’m certain glad that we’re a great distance from that.”
In a world during which Black individuals who survived integration within the South are nonetheless alive, Jones desires us to consider that he didn’t perceive the historic second he watched Black folks endure.
It’s an insult to our intelligence — and Smith made the minimize even deeper.
“I’m fairly pissed off. And let me say this. I’m pissed off, however not for causes that folks would assume. I’m very very keen on Jerry Jones, and I’m not hiding that from anyone,” Smith stated on the time on First Take. The person who folks mistakenly look to as an essential voice in relation to racial and social issues declared his allegiance to Jones on nationwide TV. “Is his file good? No. However I’m pissed off as a result of he doesn’t deserve what simply occurred. He doesn’t deserve it.
“At minimal, that’s 65 years in the past.”
In line with Smith’s logic, racism and accountability have a statute of limitations. However on Tuesday, Trotter’s lawsuit opened up a brand new can of worms.
“If Blacks really feel some form of method, they need to purchase their very own crew and rent who they wish to rent,” is what Trotter alleges Jones stated in 2020 about why so few Black staff work on the highest ranges for the league and NFL groups.
For individuals who are questioning the identical, it’s as a result of (white) males like Jones received’t enable Black folks to personal NFL franchises. Over the previous few years, the NFL has had an opportunity to make historical past by permitting a Black particular person to realize admittance to the final word good ole boys membership. Rich Black males like Byron Allen and Robert F. Smith have been neglected or had their bids denied in efforts to maintain NFL possession lily white — sans Jacksonville Jaguars majority proprietor Shad Khan.
“Variety and inclusion are extraordinarily essential to me personally and to the NFL,” stated Jones in response to Trotter’s declare in his lawsuit — as if historical past is suffering from white folks really admitting their prejudices, biases, and racist methods. “The illustration made by Jim Trotter of a dialog that occurred over three years in the past with myself and our VP of Participant Personnel Will McClay is solely not correct.”
Over the previous few years, Smith — a former constructive voice for Black athletes and Black folks — has been unapologetic in talking his fact. Nonetheless, that revelation has felt like Smith desires nothing greater than to be a rich white man — and all of the privileges that include it.
“I’m a proud capitalist and received’t apologize to anyone,” he as soon as stated on Fox Information.
Smith considers Sean Hannity a good friend, implied that President Biden has made extra errors than a twice-impeached Donald Trump who’s dealing with a RICO, has endorsed Chris Christie [Ed. note: Gross] over a Democratic Presidential candidate, and has doubled down on his personal “presidential aspirations.”
The person who was as soon as Allen Iverson’s confidant now resembles Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks.
Now we wait to see how Smith will reply to what his white savior has been accused of. But when we’re being trustworthy, there’s just one factor that must be requested of Smith.
“How fond are you of Jones, now?”
Solely he is aware of the reply to that. And irrespective of the response, it’ll inform us who Stephen A. Smith really is — in the identical method that journalists on the Washington Put up and Jim Trotter have proven us who Jerry Jones has all the time been.
