Jemele Hill . . . Miss Bojangles?

Whoever said being a writer or even a blogger was easy . . . well, I've never heard that, so hopefully that means no one is saying it. When you put your opinion in the public sphere, where it can never be erased, you are basically putting a sign on your back that says "Kick Me in the Buttlocks*." Because you're going to get abused.

Check out this blog called The Starting Five, a site that's quite well done as far as blogs or even websites go. It contains a post about a TV appearance today by ESPN Page 2 writer and sometime sports analyst Jemele Hill. For those of you who are not familiar with Hill, I think it's safe to say that she's the only African American, female sportswriter currently employed by a "major" sports outlet.

To my dismay, she does not have a Wikipedia page so I was forced to do more searching than I wanted to find out about her. According to a Michigan State University website, which indicates that Hill won a 2007 Outstanding Alumni Award, she graduated from Michigan State in 1997, receiving a BA in journalism. Apparently, she covered a variety of major sporting events while working in Detroit for several years with the the Detroit Free Press. Some of the other facts on this page (such as her age and the length of time she has been with ESPN - see here) seem off, but this part of her bio was interesting:

According to a recent study prompted by the Associated Press Sports Editors, she is the only African-American female sports columnist to be found at the 305 newspapers surveyed.

See, I knew it was safe to say.

Now, the site gives picture credit to the Orlando Sentinel, but doesn't mention that she was a sports columnist with Sentinel for two years prior to upgrading to ESPN. According to The Starting Five's previous interview with her, she went to ESPN because it afforded her the opportunity to write and do television. (As if anyone needs to explain why they went with ESPN!) Say what you want about her often controversial opinions (see her open letter to young black men - and her video response here - or this, or this blogger's dissatisfaction with her), but she's starting to show up everywhere. Although I don't always agree with her views, I can appreciate that she does not shy away from saying what's on her mind. And, she balances her more controversial pieces with stories like this.

Well, Starting Five didn't quite pin her to the mat, but it did take her to task for apparently stating during her appearance on Outside the Lines that racial bias is to be expected in the court system. The blog thoroughly analyzes the implications of her statement, concluding that Hill went further than she needed to go to make her point.

While I was intrigued by the analysis in the blog, the comments to the post came right at her neck, accusing her of everything from "selling out" to "bojangling."

I think I found my new tag line: "Pleats 'n Cleats - selling in since 2007."

* No this is not a typo. This is the actual response given by a client when asked "Sir, where were you shot?"