In a recent conversation with Brandon Tatum and Gary Chambers, ESPN host Stephen A. Smith promoted a “black first identity” — which frames black identity through the lens of historical oppression rather than individual agency and achievement.
“What the hell is wrong with looking at yourself as black first before you’re anything else? Black before you’re American. Black before, you know, you’re anything else. What’s wrong with that?” Smith asked Tatum and Chambers.
“Because all black people ain’t the same,” Tatum responded. “Like, for instance, we all different. So when I say ‘I’m black,’ what does that mean? The color of my skin.”
“Black people from New York is different than black people from the South. Black people from Africa that came over here as immigrants are very different than African-Americans. We’re diverse like anybody else,” he continued. “When white people say ‘I’m white first,’ what does that mean?”
Smith argued in response that black people should identify with their enslaved ancestors, as they are identifying with the “remnants of that even in today’s society.”
“I’m saying if you identify yourself as black before you identify yourself as American, what you’re doing is saying coming out of the womb, I know I’m going to be at a disadvantage because I’m in America and I’m going to have to scratch and claw and have an uphill climb,” he continued.
While he says that should not be met with a “defeatist attitude,” he goes on to say that it means “you are at least acknowledging that there are historical insidious acts that are associated with this particular nation.”
BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is not amused.
“Stephen A. Smith is a cancer to the American media. That you could sit there and be paid $20 million a year by ESPN … and be as unqualified as Stephen A. Smith and then make the argument that there’s all these historical disadvantages, uphill climb,” he comments, annoyed.
“Don’t tell me about 150 years ago in slavery, something you did not experience. Don’t tell me about 100, 80 years ago, and segregation, and things you did not experience,” he says.
“When did you run uphill? When you flunked fourth grade? That was a racist plot? That was American racism making you repeat fourth grade?” he continues, pointing out that Smith’s obsession with a “black first identity” isn’t actually a “black first” identity at all.
“That’s a victim first identity. That’s what you just unpacked,” he explains.
“He’s promoting a victim first identity while claiming to be a Christian, while claiming to belong to some church, while claiming to have some sort of biblical worldview. Show me anywhere in the Bible where Christians are supposed to take on a victim first mentality,” he continues.
“Stephen A. Smith and myself grew up at the exact same time,” he says. “We’ve never been victims.”
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