ESPN’s decision to suspend Jemele Hill wasn’t about race or gender

ESPN SportsCenter host Jemele Hill was suspended for two weeks by ESPN after calling on fans to boycott advertisers of the Dallas Cowboys. The call came after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said publicly on Sunday that if any of his players didn’t stand for the national anthem, they wouldn’t play.  

 

As you may recall, Jemele Hill is the same host who called a sitting president a white supremacist just two weeks ago. She wasn’t reprimanded in any capacity and only offered half an apology by stating she let “her colleagues and company down with an impulsive tweet.”

 

No apology would come to the president, and the tweets in question were not deleted. 

 

{mosads}Lots to unpack here, including the biggest question:

 

 

Does Hill believe part of her job description as an ESPN host is to call on fans to boycott advertisers of a team in a league her network is partnered with?

This play always work. Change happens when advertisers are impacted. If you feel strongly about JJ’s statement, boycott his advertisers. https://t.co/LFXJ9YQe74

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 9, 2017

Cowboys have a huge national following. Lot of black & brown folks are Cowboys fans. What if they turned their backs on them? https://t.co/qezpPwDTAB

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 9, 2017

Don’t ask Dak, Dez & other Cowboys players to protest. A more powerful statement is if you stop watching and buying their merchandise.

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 9, 2017 

Hill didn’t think this one through very well. For if she had, she’d realize that many of the same advertisers she’s telling fans to boycott also advertise on her 6:00 p.m. SportsCenter show. Whoops. 

 

Do you think Hill’s bosses at ESPN heard from more than a few of those major businesses on Monday after she made the boycott declaration? 

 

Add it all up, the flagship franchise in a league that ESPN pays $15.2 billion for Monday Night Football rights has come under attack from a host on the network who says fans should spend their money elsewhere. 

 

Do you think the corner offices at the headquarters in Bristol heard from the NFL and Jerry Jones as well? 

 

Of course, since it’s 2017, everything seemingly is seen through the prisms of gender and race.

ESPN’s suspension of Jemele Hill is an outrage and should NOT go unanswered. ESPN and advertisers will hear from us!

— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) October 9, 2017

It’s no accident that Donald Trump has chosen a Black woman (Jemele Hill) and a Black man (Colin Kaepernick) as his primary targets/enemies.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 10, 2017

By not standing with Jemele Hill, ESPN has chosen to stand on the wrong side of history https://t.co/cAWOkNHo8e pic.twitter.com/GmqiOs5m6f

— The Root (@TheRoot) October 10, 2017

Hill could have handled this by sharing her opinion that she disagrees with Jerry Jones because of X, Y, Z. 

 

The point either being missed or ignored is that Hill opted to become an activist in sharing the names of advertisers to boycott. 

As a host, that’s not her job. 

 

So as a fun test, if applicable, send out a social media post today listing your company’s biggest partners, clients or advertisers and demand they be boycotted. 

 

Then proceed to share that post with your boss. 

 

The safe bet is you won’t be suspended for two weeks like Hill was. 

 

You’ll be walked right out the door. 

 

As for ESPN, don’t bother patting them on the back too much here for finally taking action against Hill. The network should have suspended her two weeks ago and, instead, opted to look the other way. 

 

That only emboldened Hill to act even more brazenly to her employer because she felt she had the upper-hand. 

 

In the end, Jemele Hill should follow her passion where it truly lies: political, cultural and race issues. 

 

There’s a place for that on television that would sign her faster than Tom Brady releases a football. 

It’s called cable news.