Thursday on ESPN’s “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith responded to outspoken basketball father LaVar Ball saying he would be treated differently if he were white.
While Smith disagreed with that premise in Ball’s case, Smith did say that people, in general, try to control black people with potential, while white people with potential tend to have their abilities maximized.
“When you are a black person with incredible potential, folks are more interested in controlling you than exploiting your talents and your gifts,” Smith explained. “If you’re white, they’re more interested in exploiting it and maximizing it to the nth degree. It is something that any successful black person will co-sign. America and its history, in corporate America and beyond, has absolutely, positively proven that point. So, when LaVar Ball says that from a generic perspective, he’s absolutely correct. But if you’re talking about LaVar ball specifically, [it] doesn’t apply here.”
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