Jemelle Hill To Be Suspended Over Transphobia, Barstool Issues?
Is Jemelle Hill going to be suspended over her transphobia and issues with Barstool Sports?
Early this week, Hill engaged in war of words with Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports over comments they made regarding Colin Kaepernick.
In a recently unearthed clip, Portnoy, Kevin ‘KFC’ Clancy and Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz could be heard discussing Kaepernick in terms that were deemed to be problematic. Specifically, some took issue with the way they talked about the former San Francisco 49ers star, Arabs and Palestinians.
As the Barstool criticism was going viral, Hill took a little shot at them.
“This is terrible, but then again, consider the source,” she wrote.
Portnoy immediately took issue with this, and began retweeting various criticism about Hill. One of the things he retweeted was an old tweet from Hill that some consider transphobic.
“My fb friends are calling him ‘Manny the Tranny’… so inappropriate and hilarious,” Hill wrote in the tweet.
When confronted about the matter, Hill tweeted out a response.
“Let me address this,” she wrote.
“I saw some folks circulating this tweet from 2009 in my TL after I criticized Barstool’s Dave Portnoy for a racist skit that went viral yesterday. Let me explain why I kept this tweet up when it was brought to my attention.
“For context, the tweet was in reference to Manny Ramirez testing positive for the woman’s fertility drug, gonadotropin,” she added.
“It was wholly ignorant, dumb, and offensive. I am ashamed that I was so uneducated about trans issues at the time. I stand with this community firmly today.
“I kept the tweet up because I welcomed the opportunity to apologize and to show growth. See, unlike some people, I’m not defensive about my moments of failure. I learn from them and own it.”
Shortly after writing all that, Hill deleted the offending tweet.
Now many are wondering if Hill’s employers, The Atlantic and Vice Media, will take action against her comments. Thus far, neither company has commented on what transpired. It will be interesting to see if that changes as the week goes on.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
