ESPN analyst and reporter Stephen A. Smith, apparently in reaction to seeing anyone who dares to say the words "all lives matter" in succession getting mercilessly attacked, pushed back hard today against the censorship and intimidation of the "Black Lives Matter" crowd in three tweets. The first: "Where is all the noise about #BlackLivesMatter when black folks are killing black folks?" The second: "There's nothing wrong when a presidential candidate says 'All lives Matter'!" The third: "I'm a black man. Of course I know #BlackLivesMatter. You can't boo a presidential candidate just b/c he says 'all lives matter'."
Only in the la-la land of the perpetually aggrieved would someone saying that "All lives matter" be interpreted as really meaning that they don't genuinely believe that black lives matter. But, as would be expected, Smith, who is black, is catching flak for this, just as he did when he went on the air and ranted against those who blame all of their woes in life on racism in May of last year. That video will appear at the end of this post.
As is the case with that episode, Smith isn't about to let the criticism get to him (the third tweet was pushback after negative reaction to the first two).
There's no point in reciting the litany of ugly responses from others to Smith's tweet. But I do want to point to one which is supportive:
Yes, that is the Montel Williams — who, as Matt Balan at NewsBusters noted earlier today, was on CNN declaring that “I’m sick of the fact that we now have to think that this term only belongs to one community. You know, lives matter in America. Black lives definitely matter. But every life in this country matters – especially the lives of the soldiers who put their life on the line every day to defend this democracy …”
I'm not seeing others in the media coming to Smith's defense. I wonder why? (That's sarcasm, folks.)
Here is that Smith video from May of last year. What starts as defense of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban morphs at the 2:55 mark into a classic how-to on the work ethic (HT Patterico):
If there's a single best line in the video, it would probably be this:
"When we talk about the American Dream, you know who I think about? Myself."
Smith then proceeds to describe how he accomplished what he has thus far in life. It's gripping stuff. More people need to see it — especially those who are being told they can't make it in America because there is no hope.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
