Stephen A. Smith deserves no forgiveness
Why does ESPN's highest-paid on-air personality get to say whatever he wants with little to no repurcussion?
When Stephen A. Smith says something, anything, he does so with unparalleled conviction. If he actually knows what he’s talking about, which, it turns out, is not that often, his high-octane delivery can be entertaining to a certain subset of his audience. He is intermittently factually incorrect, and those clips become fodder for social media ridicule. Too frequently, Stephen A. Smith says something bigoted. And when he does, his signature boldness feels like fury.
On Monday, Smith went viral for comments about the brilliant, ethereal Angels do-it-all stud Shohei Ohtani, in which Smith smugly shouted, “I don’t think it helps that the number one face [of baseball] is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying in this country.” This statement was virulently racist, leaning on generations-old prejudice to make an unnecessary and stupid point. After hearing the blowback to his anti-Asian tirade, Smith shared a video on Twitter in which he accused people of not understanding what he was trying to get across on TV. The face of ESPN doubled down with another tweet two hours later and denied offending “ANY GROUP of people” after many Asian-Americans expressed offense, and defended his verbal assault on a minority group by retorting, “I’m BLACK. I would know!” Two more hours later, Smith finally issued his version of an apology. He wrapped up a rambling paragraph, which smartly acknowledged the recent increase in violence against the AAPI community, by teasing an on-air apology on his show tomorrow.
It wasn’t the only racist remark Smith made on First Take on Monday. He also said, “However the hell you pronounce his name” when reading off the name of Nigerian basketball players who had a hand in defeating U.S.A. He didn’t see fit to apologize for that one. But then again, why question him? He’s “BLACK.” He would know.
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This is hardly the first time Smith has used his rhetoric as a weapon. He was suspended after failing to properly condemn domestic violence in the aftermath of the Ray Rice saga. His message to the women in his life at the time: “Let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions.” In a 2019 GQ profile, Smith said he felt he shouldn’t have been suspended and told author Drew Magary, “I apologized because of how things were interpreted."
In his video shared Monday, Smith said, “People are misinterpreting what I’m saying.”
There is rich irony in Smith claiming he was misinterpreted. (Maybe he needs an interpreter.)
You can take Smith at his word when he tweets that he is honestly, sincerely apologetic. Perhaps he decided, on a Monday evening, after spending every ounce of daylight demeaning the AAPI community, to finally feel contrite.
But words have consequences. Platform and influence matter. Words that come out of Stephen A.’s mouth hold more weight than most because Smith screams when he speaks. If he says something racist, he isn’t bumbling through the message. He’s making sure viewers hear each syllable clearly. Emphatic syllables are some of the sharpest tools of hate. Smith rose to fame because he leaves a lasting impression, and that impression has run its course.
ESPN may decide to suspend Smith for what he said about Ohtani, but Smith is too valuable a commodity to the network at this point to be pushed out the door. He has the power to say virtually whatever he wants, to flub names, to express racist opinions that are so goddamn easy to not express publicly, to flaunt and berate and tease and squeal and collect a multi-million dollar check for the performance.
Smith is a Black man who worked hard to get where he is. Wonderful. He’s clearly done doing the hard work. Now it’s up to the audience to decide they’re done listening.