ESPN host Stephen A. Smith called out the media on Wednesday for ignoring black-on-black violence.
Speaking on his podcast, Smith addressed the gun violence that broke out in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend, resulting in more than 50 Chicagoans being shot and about a dozen murdered. Such violence, tragically, is normal for Chicago over holidays.
“When we gonna look at ourselves when it comes to black people being killed in the streets of America? I don’t even want to get into what happened in Chicago, but I have no choice,” Smith said.
According to Smith, there is a double standard in the media about black deaths. When police kill a black person, there is “holy hell.” But there are only crickets when black people kill each other.
“If one black person was killed by the police, we’d raise holy hell, and in some cases there’d be riots in the streets,” he said. “What I’m saying is: Where’s the due diligence when it comes to putting a spotlight on what we are doing to each other?
“This s*** is pissing me off,” Smith screamed.
“It’s not the first time this has happened,” he continued. “It’s been happening year after year after year. Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, the list goes on and on. Where’s the noise at? Where’s the protest? Where’s mainstream media talking about that? Where is it?”
Smith couched his comments in the context of reparations, which he admittedly agrees with. But, he explained, a conversation about “what we deserve” cannot happen if “we’re dead” and if “we’re killing each other.”
“There’s a variety of ways that reparations can take place — but it doesn’t matter if we’re dead!” Smith exclaimed. “Especially at our own hands.”
“We need to stop killing each other” Stephen A. Smith on violence and black communitieswww.youtube.com
Earlier in the podcast, Smith expressed agreement with Megyn Kelly, who shamed gun control advocates last month for using mass shootings to push gun control while silencing any other remedy to gun violence.
“The fact of the matter is: The bad guys always end up having [guns], which is why I’m not a hard and fast dude against Second Amendment rights,” Smith said.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!