ESPN’s Jemele Hill has waded into the attacks on Fox News host Laura Ingraham, with an attempt to turn the controversy into a discussion about racism.
In a pair of Tweets on Friday, Hill implied that she thinks Ingraham got away with criticizing black basketball players without facing a boycott, but now she is finding trouble with David Hogg only because the kid is white.
“Always interesting to note what line can’t be crossed. Guess #ShutUpAndDribble wasn’t the line,” Hill Tweeted on March 30.
Hill went on with a second tweet bemoaning the racism in the U.S. by claiming LeBron James would have been “vilified” if he went after Ingraham’s advertisers.
“Maybe I’m just a cynic, but if LeBron called for her advertisers, he would have been vilified. And why do they need to be told? It seems like they should decide independently for themselves what’s acceptable and what’s not,” she wrote.
The former SportsCenter host is, of course, referring to another recent controversy where Laura Ingraham’s sharp tongue earned her a round of condemnation. In February, the Fox host told basketball players like LeBron James to “shut up and dribble,” to stop talking about politics, and just play their sport.
Ingraham was called a “racist” for attacking the players, but in her defense, she noted that the “shut up and” line is one of her typical rejoinders to those she has targeted for disagreement.
The Fox personality denied there was any racial component to her criticism of the players saying, “In 2003, I wrote a New York Times bestseller called ‘Shut Up & Sing,’ in which I criticized celebrities like the Dixie Chicks & Barbra Streisand who were trashing then-President George W. Bush. I have used a variation of that title for more than 15 years to respond to performers who sound off on politics.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.