Rachel Nichols vs Maria Taylor
As if we needed more examples of racism/white privilege in sports, here’s another one about privilege and how entitlement can lead to strained, or even broken relationships.
So, if you watch ESPN, you should pretty much know Rachel Nichols by now. A longtime employee at the business, she is synonymous with the sports that we as black people care about, specifically basketball and football. Her NBA coverage is what she’s known for, and she is pretty good at what she does. She also seems to be an advocate for people of color, regularly saying things on air that reflect her alliance with people of color and their respective plights.
So, upstanding ally of a white woman, right?
Be careful (as a black person) of just outwardly trusting those who look different than you, and make them prove themselves to you every day, lest you be the one on the judgmental end of things.
So, here’s a short version of the story as I read/heard it (I’ll leave the links to the article/video that I watched). Rachel Nichols was apparently promised the head reporter job for the NBA Finals in the bubble at some point before the bubble was established. But there was a problem. Maria Taylor was the host of NBA Countdown (and still is), therefore she was in line to host the show, and was the choice of the company to host the pregame and halftime game show for the NBA Finals. Both Nichols and Taylor have hosted different versions of the show, and Nichols believed that she would be the choice over Taylor for the hosting gig for the NBA Finals. Nichols, learning that she was not the choice, then called a man named Adam Mendelsohn, who is LeBron James and Rich Paul’s longtime advisor, to vent. Unbeknownst to Nichols, her conversation was accidentally recorded by herself as she made comments about Maria Taylor getting the nod over herself for the job.
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in July 2020. “If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.” - Rachel Nichols
Link: A Storm at ESPN Over Rachel Nichols Comments on Maria Taylor
Doesn’t seem to harmful, does it? Just seems as though she believes she is the better person for the job, right?
The issue starts with that line of thinking. For starters, why say that she was the better choice because of pressure due to diversity concerns if that’s not what she actually believes? Why not say that she is simply the better choice? And why not say that she is clearly qualified, unless you do not believe so? Because the insinuation is that Maria Taylor got the job because she is essentially a sympathy hire, which isn’t true. Black women are always questioned about their presence in spaces, whether it is relationships, careers, or otherwise.
Maria Taylor was also condemned due to her contract ending soon (and presumably wanting a new one) as somehow leaking this information so that she could have leverage in negotiations, which is asinine. How in the world would she have known that Nichols was going to say the things she said when she said them, and use language that would give her any kind of leverage in this situation? Short answer: She didn’t, so that notion must be thrown out. In fact, not only was Maria Taylor smeared, but a low level producer who was said to have forwarded the information to Maria Taylor was suspended for two weeks without pay, and reduced to a lesser role moving forward. That doesn’t sound right. There was a white woman that said questionable, unfounded comments about a black woman, but the black women were punished while the white woman got off with a half-hearted apology? Here’s her apology, in its entirety:
Heartfelt, right? What was more important was the way her colleagues (who are both black men, by the way) came in to save her image and self-esteem by protecting her from scrutiny that is deserved based on her actions, which is what black men are increasingly being known as: the Black Savior. She didn’t need saving, she needed discipline. Maria Taylor deserved the protection, but as it turns out, everything turned out the way they wanted it, the black woman is slandered, and the white woman gets away.
Great Job, ESPN.