(ThyBlackMan.com) One of the most recognizable voices in sports, ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, isn’t shy about giving his opinion about the top sports headlines daily. In fact, he gets paid millions of dollars to do so, which is a dream job for millions and millions of sports fans everywhere. For decades now, both Smith and his former morning ESPN First Take combatant, Skip Bayless, have represented the prototype for today’s sports debate TV, where the focus is more on the volume and style of how professional and college sports news is discussed and less on the substance, analytics, and nuances of sports discussion. There’s an obvious reason why Stephen A. Smith has the nickname, “Screamin’ A. Smith”.
In recent years, Stephen A. Smith has built the national cachet to discuss more than sports and does so on his The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast. Smith stated months ago on his podcast that he would be voting for Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, saying, “This is why, just so y’all know, I support the opponent for Donald Trump, Joe Biden. Despite the fact that he’s gonna be 82 years of age and you got the Dems begging for four more years of him.”
During that podcast that Stephen A. Smith called Biden’s likely opponent, Donald Trump, “dangerous”, which is accurate. However, Smith is ignoring that Biden is ALSO “dangerous” both here and abroad, which is why we see so many people voicing their displeasure with his foreign policy. Malcolm X made a correct analysis of both the Republican and Democrat parties decades ago regarding their lack of caring for the working masses. He was astute of what those parties represented for African/Black people in this country saying in 1964, “We won’t organize any black man to be a Democrat or a Republican because both of them have sold us out. Both of them have sold us out; both parties have sold us out. Both parties are racist, and the Democratic Party is more racist than the Republican Party.”
Just because Stephen A. Smith publicly says he supports Joe Biden doesn’t mean he doesn’t empathize with Donald Trump at times. Last month, Smith got into a public social media spat with the NAACP recently after Smith went on Fox News defending Donald Trump by saying Black Americans could relate to him “being discriminated against,”. The backlash for Smith’s comments led to him making a public apology on his podcast. The entire situation shows that Stephen A. Smith’s political analysis is more flawed than the sports analysis he gets paid millions of dollars for. It is also important to point out that the NAACP of today isn’t the one of the Civil Rights Movement and seems more interested in more in smaller scale issues than mass liberation for African/Black people.
In today’s society, many media personalities like Stephen A. Smith with the widest net to reach people with their voices seem to have the least amount of substance regarding real-life issues. He made his national fame for his outspoken and brash sports takes for years and it has led to him being expected to give opinions on political matters that effect everyday people. Don’t expect those opinions to be educated ones as he has displayed time and time again to be lacking in that area whether it is sports or politics.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines