It’s not often in life that a person is lobbed the easiest of softballs to undo some some significant public relations damage.
ESPN’s Jemele Hill had that very opportunity presented to her on ABC’s “The View’ when she was a co-host Wednesday.
Hill has become a lightning rod of sorts for various comments she has made about President Donald Trump.
In September, she sparked a firestorm by accusing Trump of being a “white supremacist.”
For obvious reasons, the inflammatory comments upset quite a number of people.
ESPN only compounded the backlash by refusing to reprimand her in any significant fashion.
When Hill finally did get suspended for two weeks, it was because of comments she made on Twitter about boycotting the Dallas Cowboys because of Jerry Jones’ anti-national anthem protest stance.
She has since transitioned from hosting “SportsCenter” to working on ESPN’s black culture site, The Undefeated.
The 42-year-old Hill had a golden opportunity to smooth over a lot of her divisiveness on “The View,” but she opted to punt instead.
If anything, Hill doubled down on her critiques.
“Like a lot of people, I was feeling very emotional because Charlottesville had happened, and I probably did what you shouldn’t do when you feel emotional, a little angry, is go to Twitter,” Hill began.
There’s nothing wrong with admitting that being emotional and going on social media was a bad idea. In fact, it’s a good segue into an actual apology.
Hill veered the other way.
“Do you still stand by what you said? And do you think President Trump supporters are white supremacists,” co-host Meghan McCain asked Hill.
“I still stand by what I said,” she answered.
Hill then proceeded to attempt a half-hearted backtrack, while finding a new way to attack Trump supporters.
“I don’t think that his supporters are white supremacists,” she claimed, contradicting what she literally said moments earlier.
“What I would say, though, is that they have the privilege, the benefit of privilege to be able to distance and disassociate themselves from certain issues,” Hill said.
She went on to play something of a racially charged victim card.
“Me, as a woman of color, I feel vulnerable to certain behaviors, certain policies, certain things that [Trump’s] said and done,” said Hill.
Her claims are an incredible leap of logic, even for Hill.
First and foremost, she makes the somewhat racist distinction that all Trump supporters are white. That’s simply not true. What of the black Trump supporters? Or the Asian or Mexican Trump supporters? Are they not allowed to commiserate with some of the issues that Hill has to deal with?
Second, there is a clear-cut distinction between a “privilege” of distancing oneself from an issue and merely not knowing enough or caring enough about divisive identity politics.
And that’s why you are where you are today. This racist comment is not good in any form. He’s our white president, sorry, if it bothers you. We are all Americans with different tones of skin!
— Mares (@xbrooklynite21) February 21, 2018
The world isn’t a black and white place. It’s fair to say that Trump has done some good and some bad. It’s just as fair to say that Trump supporters aren’t necessarily supportive of every last thing the president has done.
For Hill to lump Trump supporters together and attack them is just downright dishonest.
Via WildCard
