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In 2021, ESPN journalist Sage Steele sat for an interview with former NFL player Jay Cutler. The interview wasn’t controversial unless you inhabit ESPN’s C suite or you’re a Kool-Aid-drinking congregant of the church of the perpetually offended — of which there are plenty.

It was her comments about Obama that riled up the church members. Steele, who is biracial, recounted that she was told by another ESPN host to pick a race. White, or Black – pick one. The podcast host, Jay Cutler told her that the Census Bureau allowed people to select only one race and that Obama, who’s also biracial, had chosen Black.

Steele said:

“I’m like, ‘Well, congratulations to the president. That’s his thing.’ I think that’s fascinating considering his Black dad was nowhere to be found, but his White mom and grandma raised him, but hey, you do you. I’m going to do me.”

Steele’s clear and undeniable point was that Obama chose the race of the parent he never knew. His only connection to his father was skin color. The left exploded. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued. Such talk is anathema to the perpetually offended.

The always “classy” Jemele Hill called Steele a “clown.” Hill, who can find white supremacy in a glass of milk and whose present career is finding racism where none exists, wasn’t alone in her outrage that Steele said something factual that also made sense.

Jimmy Traina is Sports Illustrated’s resident loudmouth. He’s also a faithful Colin Kaepernick leg-humper. Traina is also, generally, “fact-challenged.”

He wrote about Steele:

[Steele] thinks President Barack Obama identifying as biracial on a census is “fascinating, considering his Black dad is nowhere to be found, but his white mom and grandma raised him.”

No, Jimmy, that isn’t what she said. In fact, Steele said, pretty much the opposite. Steele was “fascinated” that Obama would identify as Black (not biracial) when his sperm donor father abandoned his mom.

ESPN gave Steele a choice — either apologize (for telling the truth) or, likely, she would be terminated. ESPN said:

“At ESPN, we embrace different points of view – dialogue and discussion make this place great. That said, we expect that those points of view be expressed respectfully, in a manner consistent with our values, and in line with our internal policies. We are having direct conversations with Sage and those conversations will remain private.”

At ESPN, one can blather racist tropes but the target has to be white. A few days ago, Kendrick Perkins flat-out claimed that it was a “fact” that white voters voting for a white NBA player was the product of white “racism.” Perkins’s comments weren’t nuanced — they dripped with racism — but Perkins is black and his targets were white. So there will be no employment consequences. There were none. ESPN will simply wait for it to blow away.

On March 10th, ESPN published a piece on one of its properties called “Andscape,” which is the successor to “The Undefeated.” Andscape’s sole focus is highlighting Blacks in sports. Most articles are benign and some are interesting but today’s was a stunner. The author, named Clinton Yates, produced a piece titled:

Building an All-Black World Baseball Classic Team

The subhead is:

What if the United States fielded a team of Black Americans? Here’s who would make the cut.

Within the first few paragraphs, Yates shoehorns a throw-away reference to colonialism, then claims the “sun never sets on the [British] Empire” (pro tip, Yates, it set three generations ago) and then gets to the meat of his piece: Hey, wouldn’t it be nice to return to segregation and field teams based on race?

Yates writes:

Before you go screaming about which lives matter, just think about it. Puerto Rico, for example, is part of the U.S. Certainly a separate baseball nation, the tournament would be absurd to not have them on their own. [In] places like the Czech Republic, an adorable squad that has guys on it who are financial advisers and firefighters, is basically just there to have a good time. While there are bragging rights, it doesn’t REALLY matter, so why not honor as many heritages as possible?

To be clear, this would not come at the expense of a so-called regular Team USA and wouldn’t need to. Melting pots and so forth. But in addition? Would be great. One nation fielding two teams at international tournaments isn’t unheard of in say, the Olympics.

Yates offers no justification for his regressive fantasy.  He thinks segregating players by race is a super idea. “Separate but equal” didn’t run through Yates’ head. Instead, he claimed it would be honoring “heritage”? That assumes that every Black man in MLB embraces the same “heritage.” And, by the way — who is Black? The photo Yates uses in his “let’s segregate baseball again” article shows Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Aaron Judge was adopted and raised by white parents. Judge is bi-racial. Stanton is also bi-racial. Yates, in his rush to segregate baseball based on race, seems to have stepped on a giant bi-racial rake.

Will Yates be fired or reprimanded? Meh, he’ll likely get a promotion.