Restless race-baiter Jemele Hill may soon be on the move again. The controversial writer for The Undefeated, a social justice-themed ESPN blog, said in a recent speech that she plans to quit her gig sooner than later. She and a friend have already begun a video production company focusing on race and gender, according to Ozyfest.com writer Peter Buseck.
In remarks at the recent Ozyfest in New York (an event that also featured Hillary Clinton), Hill said: “As much as I’d like to tell you about Golden State’s latest game or tell you about why Jacksonville can win the Super Bowl, some days I just didn’t give a shit because of everything else that was happening in this country.”
That certainly showed in her work on ESPN SportsCenter and in her writing at The Undefeated!
Hill said she has been approached about running for political office, but as Buseck reported, "she doesn’t plan to throw her hat in the ring. Politicians, she said, 'kiss a little too much ass. That’s not my strong suit.'” What a shame. With Hill's penchant for making reckless, ill-advised remarks, her daily campaign bufoonery would have been the gift that keeps on giving.
Not only is Hill's mouth a big problem, her tweets are even more out of control. Last fall she tweeted that President Donald Trump and his supporters are "white supremacists. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, said Hill should be fired.
Hill was not fired or suspended. But shortly after that ESPN did suspend her — for recommending football fans boycott sponsors of the Dallas Cowboys because owner Jerry Jones said his players would risk benching if they protested the national anthem. Ouch! Some of the same companies were ESPN sponsors, she was biting her own employer in the pocketbook and she was quickly dispatched to the penalty box.
Buseck writes that "Hill sees an opportunity to give voice to underserved people, particularly women of color" because, in Hill's words, they have “always had to take the back seat to everything, the fight in our community is about dismantling institutional racism" and "we still have to deal with sexual violence and misogyny.” These issues are “never on the agenda because institutionalized racism are items 1-10.” She aims to change that, Buseck says.
Speaking at Ozyfest, Hill said, “There’s many a day I wish I could punch a button and just say, ‘I’m not going to be Black today. I’m not going to be a woman today." The sports crowd doesn't understand that “it’s never just been about sports. Jackie Robinson integrated baseball 20 years before the civil rights act passed.”
Despite her notoriety and rocky performance at ESPN, Hill won the journalist of the year award given by the National Association of Black Journalists. She says she's sad about leaving sports behind, but is "excited about what the next 10–15 years of my life will look like."
Buseck raved that Hill "holds easily the largest megaphone for a woman of color in sports journalism," and that she may leave ESPN before the remaining two years on her contract expire.
"Though the precise track of Hill’s future remains a question, at the very least, she will soon be rid of people on Twitter telling her to stick to sports," Buseck concludes.
To sports fans who don't want social justice activism thrown in their face, via Hill's tweets, writing or broadcasting, her departure can't come soon enough.
