ESPN has built a culture of racism at the network, leading its personalities to become some of the most toxic in all of media.
The latest example of this comes from the latest Caitlin Clark nontroversy. In her first game of the season, Clark fouled Angel Reese, who flopped and then tried to start a confrontation. Clark was given a flagrant foul mostly due to Reese’s overreaction, as the foul was a typical foul you would see in any basketball game.
Former ESPN personality Robert Griffin III said in the aftermath that Reese “hates” Clark, which is not a crazy suggestion given that Reese cheered a far more blatant flagrant foul against Clark committed by one of her teammates last season. That led current ESPN personality Ryan Clark to imply that Griffin isn’t black enough to comment on this and understand “what black women have to endure in this country,” because Griffin, who is black, committed the crime of marrying a white woman.
This blatant racism from Ryan Clark is normal for ESPN, especially regarding Griffin. In 2012, when Griffin played for the Washington Redskins, then-ESPN pundit Rob Parker said that Griffin is a “cornball brother,” that he is “kind of black,” and that he is “not really down with the cause” and “not one of us.” This was, again, because Griffin married a white woman and said he did not want to be defined by his skin color.
Why Parker then and Ryan Clark now felt that this blatant racism was acceptable at ESPN is because it is. ESPN’s Monica McNutt and Chiney Ogwumike took to the airwaves to claim that there is a racial double standard between Caitlin Clark and Reese and implied that people who do not like Reese’s conduct are all racists. ESPN pundits and “analysts” repeatedly make false claims about race and racism, dismissing the accomplishments of white athletes or coaches such as Kevin Love or Brad Stevens.
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The face of ESPN is Stephen A. Smith, a blowhard who is paid over $20 million a year to offer no real sports analysis whatsoever. Smith and his over-the-top rants are what ESPN has leaned into over the last decade, including his rants about race and racism. (ESPN is allegedly a sports network). Earlier this year, during the lead-up to March Madness, Smith used ESPN’s airwaves to rant about DEI and challenge President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to a debate on the topic.
As evidenced by its coverage of Caitlin Clark and by the attacks going back decades on Griffin having a white wife, ESPN has fomented a culture of racism. Blatant acts of racism, such as the kind exhibited by Ryan Clark, are not punished. They are tolerated, and the loudest, most obnoxious racial voices are promoted and rewarded, as Smith has been. ESPN is a “sports” network that demands the moral right to lecture people while enabling a culture where its personalities don’t think twice about spewing their every racist thought or race-baiting rant.