Thank you, Sage Steele.
You took heat for saying something about your own mixed race family which should be incontrovertibly uncontroversial but was deemed “troubling." You never backed down.
Veteran sports anchor Sage Steele is leaving ESPN after 17 years. Her departure comes on the heels of a settled lawsuit over her free speech rights, prompted by several comments Steele made on a podcast — Uncut with Jay Cutler — in September 2021.
There were three comments made about three different subjects.
She talked about vaccine mandates. (She doesn’t like them, though she did get vaccinated, adhering to company policy.)
She suggested that young women should dress "professionally” in the work place, which was perceived as sexist and furthering rape culture (blaming the victim).
She said she identified as bi-racial because her mom is white and her dad is black. And she didn’t really understand why President Obama identified as black only, given he is also bi-racial and was raised by his white mother. Here’s the exact quote on that topic:
"I'm like, 'Well, congratulations to the President (Obama).' That's his thing. I think that's fascinating considering his Black dad was nowhere to be found, but his White mom and grandma raised him, but hey, you do you. I'm going to do me."
At the time, the vlog/blogosphere went nuts calling Steele’s comments regarding Obama “disgusting” and “white supremacist” in nature, because they furthered a “white supremacist narrative” about absent black fathers. But it wasn’t an overarching “narrative” she referenced. It was Obama’s own telling about his upbringing, in his own book, Dreams From My Father.
Because news of Steele’s settlement and subsequent resignation from ESPN were announced this past week, everyone is rehashing the original “incident” from Cutler’s show. And her comments are still described as “controversial” and “troubling.”
As it pertains to her bi-racial heritage . . . Why? Why is it controversial to identify as bi-racial or mixed race if you are?
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