Yesterday, Marlon Weems and I had a detailed conversation about the death of Jason Arday, the professor at Cambridge University. If you have a chance, go back and listen to that one, because we get into the nuance of a story that deserves much more than a hot take.
BUT today I’m giving you a hot take on Stephen A. Smith.
I have never been a fan. He is one of those people who is insufferable and believes his own hype. I’m not a fan of people who believe their hype and then act on it.
And it’s tangentially connected to what happened at Cambridge, because who crowns Black folks? Who gets to name the king of Black people?
The only people I’ve heard talking about Stephen A. Smith as a presidential candidate are white people. Is it because they know he isn’t competent to do it? What is the thing? This man has no nuanced take about anything — not even the sports he’s talking about. And I don’t know that much about sports.
All of this is relevant because the National Association of Black Journalists gave him a Thumbs Down award. They gave him a Thumbs Down award because he deserved it. He consistently claims he’s independent while espousing right-wing conservative ideology and covering it with “I’m being an independent thinker.” No, you’re not. He is also well known to degrade Black women any and every chance he gets. And when his colleague was recently let go, he didn’t exert any real authority. He didn’t even pretend he was going to leave.
Stephen A. Smith is for Stephen A. Smith.
There’s something offensive about the way it’s white people who elevate Stephen A. Smith as if he’s part of some real conversation. Either you’re a unicorn, a magical Negro, or you’re some sports person they know. There are thousands of Black intellectuals and academics all over this country qualified to go on CNN and opine on things Stephen A. Smith has no business opining on. But the bookers, the people who decide, the tastemakers — they’ve decided this buffoon is the voice of Black America.
It’s the whole thing with Charlamagne Tha God all over again. Charlamagne speaks for Black America? First of all, who speaks for white America? Why do we have to have one spokesperson, and why is that spokesperson never a subject matter expert?
So NABJ called him out. And what does Stephen A. Smith do? Ask himself what kind of buffooning he’s doing that alienates Black folks in his own community? Ask what he needs to think more deeply about? No. He’s going to go nuclear on NABJ. He went there one year, hosted a career fair, did some mentoring, brought a studio. Really? That’s his answer, which tells you exactly who he is.
Going to NABJ one year and doing some stuff doesn’t exclude you from critique. This should be a moment of reflection for Stephen A. Smith. It should also be a moment of reflection for the white tastemakers who decided to shove Stephen A. Smith down our throats as the Black person we want to run for president. I don’t want that fool running anywhere. Stop trying to make Stephen A. Smith a thing — for the presidency, for intellectual rigor, for Black folks. We didn’t ask you for this. We voted him down.
The odds are he’ll simply show his true colors and do his Clarence Thomas conservative tilt, because Black people hurt his feelings and gave him a boo-boo, instead of digging deep and asking what this moment reveals about him, about the culture, about his place in it, about his behavior.
Because again — with his colleague who was let go, where was Stephen A.? He gave ESPN a sternly worded conversation. You didn’t do anything. And you don’t have the juice you think you have. You didn’t have the juice to be president. You didn’t have the juice to keep a colleague you claim to love like a brother from getting kicked out the door for being a human being, getting upset with somebody, and apologizing. You didn’t have enough juice for that, but you expect us to believe you have enough juice to be president.
Then there’s his anger and resentment toward Black women, which is obscene. It’s nasty and cruel. Anytime he has an opportunity, he takes it. I like some Taylor Swift songs. I’m not a hater, and I’m not a Swiftie. But when Taylor Swift and Beyoncé had concerts at the same time, he took the opportunity to shade Black women: well, my daughter preferred Taylor Swift, and on and on. Nobody asked you all that.
That’s why he got a Thumbs Down award. Because he buffoons — and I’m not going to say the other thing he does, but if you know, you know.
Black people pushing back on this is us saying: slow your roll about who you think Stephen A. Smith is to Black people, because he’s not that. If you want him to be that to white people, God bless you. Have at it. Go with God. We don’t want it.
And Stephen A., you mentor Black people? You didn’t save your friend’s job. That’s the job you should have been saving, since you have so much pull. When is enough money enough that you’d feel secure saying, “If you fire him, I walk”? You weren’t going to do that, because that’s not who you are.
Being this mad, threatening to go nuclear on NABJ — it just says who he is. He deserved a Thumbs Down award. He needs to learn from it, and he won’t, because he’s full of hubris. He believes his hype. He got a couple of checks that he thinks put him at a level he’s not actually at.
Thumbs down, Stephen A. Smith.
On a lighter note
Since we’re talking about television, here are two shows I really like.
Diarra from Detroit. Created by and starring Diarra Kilpatrick, a Black woman actually from Detroit — writer, producer, all-around funny woman. It shows Black people, and Black women particularly, in a light where they get to do goofy stuff: walk into the room you’re screaming at them to walk out of, do something ridiculous. She is so funny. I recently read something that said if she were a blonde woman, this show would be a hit and people would be writing about it. That’s true, and it’s sad, because you don’t see the representation she’s giving of Black Detroit anywhere else — not just upper class, but working class, middle class, the whole class spectrum, fully represented, not as caricatures.
Interview with the Vampire, on AMC. Of course. What I love is how they adapted it. The first season takes place in New Orleans and is richly rooted in Black Creole culture, which you never see. Jacob Anderson, a British actor, does an amazing Creole accent — he’s also a singer who goes by Raleigh Ritchie. On the show, he and Sam Reid are electric. Magnetic. If you haven’t seen it, you should. The third season, The Vampire Lestat, centers Lestat’s story, with Sam Reid in the lead and Jacob Anderson still in it.
Sometimes you just have to relax. There’s so much going on, and so many things I could talk about, but I’m easing back in after some time off. I had to talk about Stephen A. Smith, because he’s been getting on my nerves for years. And then I wanted to give you something to watch when you need to decompress.
Diarra from Detroit. Interview with the Vampire, seasons one and two. The Vampire Lestat.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
