Over the weekend, ESPN co host of the 12pm SportsCenter and who hosts SportsCenter on the Road from various sporting events such as the Super Bowl and The Masters Sage Steele had a series of statements go viral for all the wrong reasons.
She told Jay Cutler on his podcast that it was “fascinating” President Obama indicated he he was Black on his census form “considering his Black father was nowhere to be found.”
Social media world went ballistic.
Then, as people started digging up her past statements about Lebron, Kaepernick, and athletes in general, the question began to circulate, why does ESPN keep rewarding her? Why doesn’t she get the same reprimand Jemele Hill received after she didn’t ‘stick to sports’ ?
Surprisingly, ESPN decided to suspend Steele. I say surprisingly because this wasn’t the first time she had ventured outside of sports and not been reprimanded. Reportedly, she will not appear in her normal SportSCenter slot for at least a week
https://news.yahoo.com/sage-steele-suspended-espn-controversial-203800107.html
To delve more into this topic, I spoke to Senior Writer for Deadspin Carron J Phillips, who over a year ago, wrote a brilliant article called “Sage Steele is ESPN’s Candace Owens and it’s time for her to go”
https://deadspin.com/sage-steele-is-espns-candace-owens-and-its-time-for-he-1844470068
This interview was conducted a day before ESPN made their announcement. But this discussion illustrates why ESPN had no choice but to suspend Sage Steele in order to avoid the exact blaring hypocrisy and double standard Carron J Philips and I expressed
Etan:
I'm looking at different networks who have traditionally liked to stay away from anything outside of athletics. Especially dealing with politics, especially dealing with anything outside of the court or field or whatever. Of course, most recently probably Jemele Hill. She was told to stay in this certain lane and only talk about these certain topics, even on her personal Twitter, and reprimanded when she didn't fall into those guidelines, and then they decided to part ways.
Etan:
I look at that, and then I look at the contrast of people, like maybe a Sage Steele, who are not being told, at least not yet, to stay in that same lane. And it's okay for them to venture outside of that lane, as long as they're taking a certain position.That's the hypocrisy to me, and we can speak on it to be quite honest. For a network like ESPN, are they picking and choosing? Or is one okay and one not okay? Or is it stick to sports, or is it not stick to sports? Which one is it? Because it's hard to see if you're just looking at it from the outside in.
Carron J Philips
Look, you are talking to somebody that has been banned from ESPN networks for years, for something I wrote about ESPN. Everything you said is correct. That is a network, that is a place, for all the amount of Black people that they hire, no one else can compete with. That was the name of one of my columns a couple years ago was that ESPN values Black bodies, but not Black problems.
Carron J Philips
When you have someone, like a Sage Steele, you have to understand, she checks off two boxes. She's a woman, and she's Black. Even if, though she doesn't want to check off the box of being a Black woman.
Etan:
(Laughing) Right
Carron J Philips:
She's a double minority right there. Listen, don't get wrong, for all the things I've written about. Let's be clear, she is very, very good at her job. She is one of the best.But the way that she presents... Bi-racial family, she has historically been the type of Black person that White people feel comfortable around.
Etan:
I understand what you’re saying
Carron J Philips:
They can be accepted in multiple circles and their political alignments or sayings or ideologies are going to be more on their side than people like me and you. So, when you have someone like that, they do get a longer leash to use that metaphor than somebody that's Black as hell, like the homie Jemele because she just going to keep it a buck with you.
Etan:
Right.
Carron J Philips:
So when you compare it to a Sage Steele it's like, "Oh." The things she said about Kaepernick or just the long litany of things, which blows my mind, that they're still up on her Twitter or her IG and she still to this day hasn't deleted anything, she is going to get a longer leash because she is the one that Jimmy Pitaro is going to have over for dinner at his house rather than Jemele Hill. We know these people in real life and we've worked with it. We've been on teams with them. You've seen them in the building at work. You know the ones that we like to say that White people label as the good ones.
Carron J Philips:
She's one of the good ones and when you're one of the good ones, you get a little extra room to boogie and maneuver and do things that the rest of us know, they wouldn't let our Black behinds do.
Etan:
Over a year ago you wrote a brilliant article that been called Sage Steele is ESPN's Candace Owens and it's time for her to go. You laid out a lot of the... a brilliant case as to her past statements, her history, like you said, that she has not deleted that she has stood by. Not even been told to retract. Not reprimanded for in any way, shape or form. Which brings us to her recent statements that went viral. That she also will probably not delete as well. She told Jay Cutler on his podcast that it was fascinating that President Obama indicated that he was Black on his census form considering his Black father was nowhere to be found, and Social media went crazy. Twitter was like, "Wait, she said what?" Like all over the place. I tweeted out that she is exactly who we thought she was.
Carron J Philips:
Or who Black folks in the industry... we knew she's always been.
Etan:
Right. So this shouldn't have come as any surprise, right?
Carron J Philips::
Yeah. Everything from that interview that has blown up the last couple days as you said. I've been getting texts. Like, "I know you're about to write about this. I know you're going to jump on." I'm like, "No, I've already written by her twice." I'm just happy that the world is now seeing because my Twitter timeline has just also been white people being upset and being done with her. I'm like, "Once they done with you, it's really a wrap
Etan: (laughing)
Carron J Philips:
But let me be clear, when I said in the first piece that it's time for her to go, I meant from ESPN. I never said the woman shouldn't work again because like I said, she's very, very good at her job. ESPN isn't the place for her. I mentioned Fox News and I would not be surprised if that's where she lands with a Will Cain or an Emmanuel Acho because she's going to fit right in with those two.
Etan:
(Laughing) That's tough. Ok, do you remember when she was on Sports Center, it was a UFC fighter...
Carron J Philips:
The playing with the hair?
Etan:
Yes !!!! I saw that. I was like, did she actually lean over? So let’s refresh the story with the audience who didn't hear. So, she was on air in the middle of talking about the UFC fight. She was asking a very good question, something to the effect of, "Do you have to hate your opponent in order to defeat him?"
Carron J Philips
Which is a really good question.
Etan:
Great question. So, In the middle of her question, he's looking at her and he says, "Can I touch your hair?" Live on TV. Now, you know, Black people, we know that's a no, no. Something you never even tolerate. But she leaned over said, "Yeah, sure, go ahead." I was like, "Is she serious?" On live TV ? I was like, "Wow, is he actually petting her?" That was the moment that a lot of the Black community was like, "Okay, we know exactly who she is.”
Was that a moment that surprised you?
Carron J Philips
No, I remember when it happened and I laughed. It wasn't necessarily me being shocked, but you know, the old proverb, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Then after that moment, it was people telling me more stuff or sources coming to me and giving me more info on her. When the situation happened and I wrote the first piece, it wasn't like I needed to do all this research. The Sage Steele file in my phone or in my head, I had been updating for years.
Etan:
There's a lot.
Carron J Philips:
There was so much material, from her speaking engagements she had, the IG posts like we said she didn’t delete. I know some people wanted to be like, "Wait, that's harsh, give all the examples and the evidence.” and by the time they got to the end of the article they were like, well... Facts, ain't feelings.
Etan:
Let's go back to some of this history, because not everyone is aware of her history. She told the New York Post and I quote, “people come to us for sports and that for the most part, we leave social and political issues to the news networks” Now, this was in the midst of everything going on with Kaepernick, with athletes like Lebron and the entire NBA gaining ground and speaking out and everything like that. That was her position that she took on ESPN. It was close to the time when Jemele hill was having her battle as well. So it was kind of a... "Y'all look at Jemele hill as this, I'm over here as this." That's how I interpreted that.
Carron J Philips:
Because that was around the same time. She also had some comments about Jemele, where she was basically like, "She did that. She knew the rules. She shouldn't have popped off. I keep my mouth shut. I keep serving this lemonade and making sure everybody in the big house happy." That was the energy of the statements or tweets she was making around that time. Which is funny when you go back and look what she said then to the New York Post and then fast forward to last year to her going to the Wall Street Journal about being upset that she was excluded from having a conversation about Black athletes and all the Black people at ESPN.
Not even all of, them just a small group of them having this conversation that was outside of sports. But it was like a couple years ago, you said this wasn't the place for it.
Etan:
Right.
Carron J Philips:
So when you weren't brought up to host that show, you said you got excluded, but you told us this ain't what you wanted and what we shouldn't be talking about. But now when you’re not invited to the party, you’re mad because you couldn't get in and don't nobody want to dance with you. But you told us you don't dance. So
why would we waist the invite ?
Etan:
(Laughing) that’s a brilliant analogy. You know, it's interesting even looking at some of her past comments about Kaepernick. They extend beyond just the regular right wing position, which was, if he's good enough to play, he would've been playing. You heard that all the time. Right? But she went a little further than that. She compared him, which was amazing to me to even see. She wanted to go past where the right wing conservatives went. She compared him to Greg Hardy. Do you remember that?
Carron J Philips:
Sage Steele tried to compare a Black man that sat down first and then kneeled after having a conversation with someone who was in the military because he wanted to kneel in peaceful protest because he wanted cops to stop treating Black bodies, a like target practice. That's it. That's the part everyone forgets.
That's all he said, "Stop shooting us."
That's all he wanted. She tried to compare that man to a man who has, I'm going to do this very lightly with air quotes, allegedly. Okay. But in multiple domestic dispute allegations and situations, multiple allegations against violence against women, because those are two different things. We have seen photographs of the alleged damage. Greg Hardy got another job in the NFL with the Cowboys after all of this. Then he went to the most violent sport ever, the same sport of the man who rubbed her hair on TV, and he became an MMA fighter. That's who she tried to compare him to. If you can't understand the blatant flagrant issues that are disrespectful in that, then you should probably click off this show now because you don't understand what we’re talking about anyway.
Etan:
Right.
Carron J Philips;
But still trying to make that correlation between two Black men on two different ends of the spectrum just because they put on a helmet and some pads. Because that's the only thing they have in common, is asinine at worst. Just belittling of someone's humanity at best.
Etan:
Right. So that brings me back to my original question. Why is one tolerated, promoted, celebrated on ESPN and another, in talking about Jemele hill, who said a statement that many could say was proven to be correct. I'm referring to Donald Trump being a white supremacist.
Carron J Philips:
Not proven. It was correct the day she said it.
Etan:
But when she said it their reason was... You know what, let me take that back. They didn't necessarily say that they disagreed with what she said. They just didn't want her to say it. That's what I took from it. But one is okay. One is allowed. But all the stuff that we just talked about that Sage Steele has done she's not even been reprimanded for. That brings me back to ESPN because people only do what they are allowed todo. When people talking about Steven A. Smith and they was like, "He does all this."
And I’m like, "Yeah, but ESPN allows it."
ESPN rewards him. ESPN makes him the face of ESPN. He's paid more than most professional athletes. So going back to Sage Steele, what message is ESPN sending ?
Carron J Philips:
We all saw what happened to Jemele because she's the thing you can point at to show how wrong they are. Ask Cari Champion about her experiences. Let's ask so many other Black people who have been in positions of power or face fronting positions on that network of being on your TV every day and what they've had to go through and those are just the stars, right? The writers, the TV people, we not even going to get into the producers. The people in HR, the booking producers who bring people on the show, the researchers, all of these people I know in real life. I've heard stories and know what goes on. As someone who's tried to work at that network, be on that that network's airways and in different capacities over the years, you get to a point to where you understand how the game is played over there.
Carron J Philips:
It's like I said earlier, they love the coolness and the word we retired, the swagger that Black people... and the soul and the juice and the sauce that we bring. But when it's actually time for it to get saucy, they going to add some water to it and bland it up because they just don't want us to be unapologetically Black all the way.
Now, I have to say, there have been some things that have changed. There have been some promotions. I do know some folks in power, but it is like everything. The jury's still out. I'm waiting to see, because last summer America told me that we were going through this racial awakening and things were going to change.
I think I wrote something every week through that summer that was like, "No, the hell it's not."
So now, it's been a little over a year later, and people are starting to be like, "It's a little bit changed but the change that I thought was going to happen ?
Etan:
That's definitely a good point. Let me just end with this because a lot of times when everybody was up in arms about Sage Steele and rightfully so, the comment was ridiculous. But she is who we always thought she was. But then we have to go back to ESPN and ask the question, why do they reward that? Why do they allow it? Why is she promoted? Then it gets to another topic was, Sage Steele is playing the game, whether she believes it or not. We'll take that part off though, because I feel that people like her, people like Jason Whitlock, people like... I know you don't agree, but I feel that they say what they know is going to... It's like in the movie, remember Bamboozled back in the day, and they put the blackface on and he's like, "I'm going to give the people what they want. Then they get rewarded it for it. So should at least some of that outrage be directed towards the people who are allowing and promoting it and rewarding it ?
Carron J Philips
First off, shout out to Bamboozled, I'm happy you used that analogy because that is just underrated Spike classic. That still holds up to this day. I got the VHS. But to answer your question, it's on ESPN. It's on those powers that be. My prediction is, she's not going to be around much longer. She's either going to get fired or that contract isn't going to get renewed whenever her contract is up because there have just been too many things over the last year or two that have become like a black eye for ESPN.
We know that is a network that doesn't necessarily like to do drama. They like to stay in this land and try to be as clean as possible because they want love and appreciation and your subscription dollars from both sides of the aisles.
Etan:
Good point
Carron J Philips:
So when you become a headache to one side or the other, they will get very creative. Maybe if you're not on TV it's more, or you're not hosting six o'clock you're hosting 12. They will find something to do with you. If you don't fall in line with what they think you should do or say. There are millions' of examples of that. But there probably isn't going to be an immediate reaction from ESPN to where they hold her accountable, which is what you want
Etan:
Yes, that’s what I want.
Carron J Philips:
But what’s happening is that they're getting exposed. Starting from Jemele to getting all the way here, from everyone that's left and all the things that are coming out. You are starting to see... Everybody's starting to get that peek behind that curtain. The wizard of Oz ain't what you think it is, and It's those things that's going to ultimately change things or get some people removed or fired. Now, is there ever going to be this wholesale change? I don't think so. People call me a cynic. I'm just a historian. This is just how America works. But as all these examples that we've seen since what, 2016, 2017 with ESPN. And ESPN is always going to be the big dog. This is how massive they are. ESPN is inescapable. Even if you don't want to watch the TV shows, you got to watch the game. You got to watch the documentary. One of their talking heads is going to speak to you. It's impossible to get away from them.
Etan:
Agreed.
Carron J Philips:
But people are starting to see... Like even this conversation right now, people weren't having this conversation three, four years ago. If they were, there wasn't someone you could point to like a Sage Steele to where you can also point to episodes that got us to this situation where the powers that be have also done repeated things so publicly that made you scratch your head and be like, "Wait, what's up. What's going on in Bristol? Why is so and so leaving? Why did they leave?" We're starting to have these very public conversations or we're releasing these tweets or we writing about stuff and people just tuning for the game but they’re like "What is this Sage Steele drama? She said what? She doesn’t get reprimanded ? Well they didn't let Jemele Hill talk like that. Why did she leave? And why did Michael Smith leave ?
Carron J Philips:
We got to be in those meetings and we're going to bring up points and we're going to hold you accountable. We're going to show you why the way that you've been doing stuff for the last couple decades has been wrong or how it could have been better. That's the moment we're in right now to where, what you want. I know what you want. It might not come right now
Etan:
Right.
Carron J Phillips:
Or If it does come, it may be later. But people are starting to see, as I like to say, the BS. That's where we’re at right now.
