Essence_USA__February_2018

ISSUES : REPORT
SportsCenter6
cohost
Jemele Hill
GAME
SET
MATCH
IN 2017 ESPN’S SPORTSCENTER
HOST JEMELE HILL SAW HER STAR
CAREER SUDDENLY DIM. NOW, BACK
AND REFOCUSED, SHE EXPLAINS WHY
SHE STILL LIVES WITH NO REGRETS
BY WENDY L. WILSON
Last year should have been the happiest one of
Jemele Hill’s life. After working professionally as
a sports journalist for 20 years and spending the
last 11 steadily sharpening her skills at ESPN’s sprawling
campus in Bristol, Connecticut, the 42-year-old finally
received the dream assignment. Hill and her cohost,
Michael Smith, were hand-chosen to bring their personalities
and the chemistry they displayed in their popular
His & Hers sports program to SC6, the holy grail of
SportsCenter’s prime-time 6 P.M. spot. Years of
constantly proving herself to be just as capable, just as
knowledgeable and just as eloquent as the men around
her seemed to finally pay off. Even Black women who
aren’t sports fans recognized the enormity of this
breakthrough moment.
Like many of us, she was never supposed to make it
this far. Born in Detroit, Hill was raised on welfare by a
single mother who struggled with substance abuse. The
one mainstay was her grandmother Naomi Webb,
whom Hill calls her “rock.” After taking a high school
journalism class and serving as an apprentice at the
Detroit Free Press, she was hooked. In 2006 she was
hired as a columnist for espn.com, where she grew her
fan base and sealed the respect of ESPN’s top brass,
her coworkers and peers.
It appeared everything was going well until this past
September when Hill sent a series of tweets, one of
which said President Donald Trump is “the most ignorant,
offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct
result of White supremacy. Period.” Although there are
numerous examples that seem to illustrate this description
(attesting that Mexican immigrants are rapists who
contribute nothing but drugs and crime to our country,
and laying the blame on “many sides” during the violent
protests in Charlottesville, Virginia), Hill was lambasted
by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee
Sanders, who said, “That is one of the more outrageous
comments anyone could make and certainly something
that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN.”
The intersection of sports, race and politics is nothing
new. In fact, it’s even more poignant these days, as more
athletes voice their concerns about the direction our country
is going in. And while Hill was hired for her deft sports
analysis, she certainly isn’t the only journalist to publicly
criticize the President. So why was she singled out?
“I have thought about that so many times because
I wasn’t the first person to say it,” admits Hill with
resolve, sitting in a conference room at ESPN headquarters.
“There is factual evidence to support what
I said, so I was very surprised by the reaction.” »
SCOTT EVANS/ESPN IMAGES
70 ESSENCE.COM FEBRUARY 2018