Boy, that’s a headline I thought I’d never write! Smith was a major reason I dropped ESPN from our satellite package: here’s a typical post about his work. The kind of loud-mouthed opinionated jackass that I’d get up and move away from if he was holding forth near me at a bar, if Smith were a white pundit who talked about blacks the way Smith talks about whites, he would be fired mid-sentence. I still stand by the last thing I wrote about Smith in that post: “‘Ethics Dunce’ doesn’t really describe someone like Smith, an arrogant narcissist who feels entitled to inflame racial resentment and division while not only profiting from it, but complaining that he isn’t profiting from it enough. What is that? Maybe it’s just as simple as ‘asshole’.”
And yet…here we are. That video above is from Smith’s podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” In this case, the fact that Smith sees anti-black racism in all things actually helps. His bias, and he’s all bias, all the time, gives him credibility here. If anyone would be thrilled to excuse black culture malignancy by crying “systemic racism,” it would be Smith. Instead, the amazing number of shootings in Chicago over the Memorial Day Weekend prompted Smith to ask the black community: “When are we going to look at ourselves when it comes to black people being killed in the streets of America?”
Well, one answer is that it might start happening when blacks with some credibility in the community, which sadly includes Smith, encourage them to do it. Fifty-three Americans were indeed shot in Chicago last weekend, with victims ranging in age from 2 to 77 years old. Future Harvard professor Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, elected by African Americans, issued this fatuous statement:
The violence our city experienced this weekend is intolerable. It produced pain and trauma that devastated communities across Chicago, and my heart breaks for everyone affected. That’s why as mayor, I am committed to leveraging every single resource at our disposal to protect every single life in our city. This holiday weekend, thousands of police officers, first responders, city workers, business leaders, organizers, faith leaders, and violence interrupters tirelessly dedicated themselves to keeping Chicago safe. I offer my deep gratitude to all those involved. We have much more work to do, but the work performed by these individuals this weekend is the foundation for how we will ultimately secure safety together.
Isn’t that great? All those professionals did such great work that 53 people were shot. But it’s okay: the mayor says the slaughter was intolerable, and his heart aches. Smith points out in his rant (all Smith does is rant), this weekend in Chicago isn’t that unusual. “It’s been happening year after year after year,”he says. “Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, the list goes on and on.” One reason the list goes on and on is that black lives don’t matter to Black Lives Matter, though Smith’s guts don’t extend to calling out that scam by name. He does contrast the black community’s protests and riots if a cop shoots a single black perp, inevitably in the process of resisting arrest, and the dead silence when members of the community are shooting each other (or whites). True…as usual, Smith is more emotion than logic. What, for example, does this mean:
And damn it, I’m not here to sit up…and blame anybody for that because I’m tired of the nonsense that we’ve seen going on in the streets aimed at black Americans. That’s not where I’m going.
What I’m saying is, where’s the due diligence when it comes to putting a spotlight on what we’re doing to each other? Because this shit is pissiing me off. Fifty-three lives. Fifty-three! In one weekend! Where’s the noise at? Where’s the protests? Where’s mainstream media talking about that? Where is it? That’s what I want to know.
What nonsense aimed at black Americans? You have to blame someone, Steve! I’d say if the black community is creating a culture where people feel that it’s acceptable to break laws, kill people and kill each other, it’s pretty clear where at least a lot of that blame lies. Isn’t that what you’re trying to say? Protest what? I know almost all race-based riots are essentially tantrums protesting life, misfortune and reality, but you’re saying, I think, that the black community has to take responsibility and bea accountable.
Well, I’m not going to expect too much from Stephen A. Smith. His basic message needs to be said, and black conservatives like Thomas Sowell or Tim Scott saying it does no good—after all, they are white supremacists. As Donald Trump has proved more than once, sometimes truth-telling by assholes can be a cultural and political catalyst.
Let’s hope it is this time.
Ethics Alarms 
I am a bit conflicted. You have recounted instances in which Smith seems genuinely idiotic.
I have also heard certain segments in which he has discussed his career (I think he put out a book or something) and he seems circumspect about his life and the goos fortune he has had.
I don’t know if I would say I am immune from the Cognitive Bias Scale, but I feel relatively comfortable thinking that someone can be an idiot and thoughtful at the same time. Dumb people can say wise things at times, and wise people can say dumb things on occasion.
But, this post seems to bring up a specific issue. There is a big secret in the black community that you have to keep problems in the family. You can’t put in-group squabbles on display in public. If you do, you provide fuel to the racists and white supremacists to argue that blacks are savages that are uncivilized and uncivilizable.
To me, that is hogwash. But, if I were to be political, there may be some groups that gain an advantage by reinforcing those fears.
I do not know where I got the idea that those problems needed to stay in the family. I have read a great deal of African-American (including African-Anglo) literature (Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, etc.). Maybe I am wrong, but there is a strain that any INTRA-cultural conflicts in the black community have to be denied to the over-arching culture, and only dealt INSIDE the black community.
I expect that it is kind of a defense mechanism that most marginalized use to protect themselves. (Quick Pride Aside: a homosexual friend of mine once said that Pride Month is there to commemorate the week that gay people got along with each other). “You got to accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative….”
The fact that Smith may be open to calling out the problems WITHIN the black community in a public way is something that should not be underestimated. Assuming that what I have said above is accurate, his public statements suggest that issues facing the black community are not going to be treated strictly as an in-group problem. Black people could stand out and say, “we want police to protect us because BLACK LIVES MATTER.’
That is one of my big problems with BLM (leaving aside the fraud, etc.). White people will say, yes, ALL LIVES MATTER, but, when your neighbors home is burning down, you don’t complain that your home matters too, you put out the fire in your neighbors house. I think it is a bad analogy because what BLM addresses is not a fire in your neighbor’s house. BLM wants to address the fire in the basement (police killings of black people) while it ignores the fire in the kitchen (drugs), fire in the living room (neighborhood crime), fire in the bedroom (fatherlessness in the black community); fire in the areas where my house analogy runs short (rampant abortion in the black community, black on black violence, general crime in black neighborhoods). I do not like BLM because it is dishonest; it only cares about one way in which Black Lives Matter (and it is such a small part of the issues facing the community).
I would love nothing more than for the black community to become integrated into the American Dream. That community has faced more ups and downs than most communities in realizing that goal. Much of that has to do with skin color than anything else. But, frankly, they are much better off than they have ever been.
But, problems still persist.
If Smith does anything to break down a barrier to accomplishing that goal, being labeled an Ethics Hero on this site will be one of the least of his accolades (sorry, Jack, you know it is true; but, at least you can say you were the first to recognize his “genius”.)
-Jut
EXCELLENT comment, Jut!
Agreed. It left me no room for rambling incoherently at all. All my opinions were already better stated.
Yo, Steven A. Come on, man. Fifty-three dudes didn’t get their asses killed. That’s jur how many suckers got their asses shot. Only eleven damn died. It ain’t so bad.
Giving you the benefit of the doubt, what are you talking about?
Just for point of reference:
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/lawlessness-has-taken-over-north-minneapolis-leaders-neighbors-beg-for-gun-violence-to-end/
-Jut
I actually like Smith’s not mentioning the death toll. Whether 53 died or none, its just moral luck. The deaths don’t make the conduct any better or worse.
Satire.
I believe he inadvertently created the impression, or even misstated that, fifty-three people were killed. ONLY (hah) eleven died of the fifty-three that were shot. A race hustler would point this out to downplay the problem. After all, being safe and not having to worry about getting shot is a white supremacist concept.
Oh, I think he deliberately used the bigger number, and should have.
Either way, Stephen A. had better watch out. Don’t forget ESPN is a Disney property. This Stephen A. rant is not down with the programming. Should be interesting to see whether it provokes any reaction other than stone cold silence.
SAS is black, and has used this as a his Golden Ticket his entire career. A white guy who spoke like that would be regarded as a buffoon and a boor. Disney wouldn’t touch him.
Stephen A. had better watch himself. He may get the Jason Whitlock or Sage Steele treatment and find himself no longer getting eight million a year from ESPN.
I’ve always gotten a kick out of his taking the Howard Cosell shtick and making it his own. That’ genius.
An interesting piece of information that I came across a couple of years ago (so it may be different now) is that the US is the number three nation in murders per capita in the world. Then, if you remove Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, St. Louis and New Orleans numbers, the US then drops to 189th out of 193 countries in the world.
Is it a coincidence that all of those cities have leftist governments and strict gun control laws?
One question-What the hell is a “violence interrupter?” How are they trained, who do they work for? How much do they get paid? Who pays them?
“Violence interrupter” sounds like a euphemism for a pistol. Kind of like Reagan calling a nuclear armed missile “The Peacemaker.”
Black lives apparently don’t matter to black people — Stephen A. Smith excepted, or so it seems.
I’ve been saying for years that the “Black Lives Matter” rubric (not the criminal organization) was purely performative, with virtually no substance. How can a group claim respect from others for something they so transparently reject?
How does abortion on demand and the insane rate of black on black violence show anything but contempt for black lives?