The world can be a horribly racist place, and whether it’s getting worse, better, or we’re just more aware of it … I’ll stop right there. We’re definitely more aware of it thanks in no small part to social media and networks like Twitter.
Case in point: ESPN reporter Jemele Hill got a racist piece of hate mail and decided to share it with her some-130,000 Twitter followers Friday morning. Though it’s hard to divine a message through the thick, racially-charged vitriol, the letter’s author, an ESPN Radio listener, seemed to regard Hill as unfit to comment on the sport of golf.
Check it out, via Jemele Hill’s Twitter:
I gotta say, this guy executed the hat trick of racial slurs twitter.com/jemelehill/sta…
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) January 4, 2013
According to the conversation that followed, Hill gets these kinds of letters every day. We hope that’s not the case, and why she’d only now post this exact one if that isthe case is a mystery, but it’s racism, so we’re giving her the benefit of the doubt. Still, we couldn’t say we were doing our jobs if we didn’t point out that some have criticized Hill of racism herself and being obsessed with race (she covers that controversy here). As always, you can decide for yourself.
Regardless of the controversy that has surrounded Hill, it goes without saying that the letter is unabashedly vile. If there’s any consolation to be had, Ms. Hill, it appears as though this racist “fan” has not yet discovered electronic communications. He wrote you a letter. With (gasp) pen and (gasp) paper. A personal statement perhaps? Not likely. More likely, he’s old and will be dead soon.
What do you think? Should Jemele Hill have published her racist hate mail to Twitter, or kept it to herself? Sound off!
UPDATE: Clarification is good for the soul!
@dusteniq FYI, I published the letter because of its uniqueness — hand-written and use of slurs that haven’t been said since the 1800s
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) January 5, 2013
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