I really didn't expect this event to evolve into the result it is today.
The incident was triggered by an investigative report published by the New York Times on Sunday. To put it simply, before the NBA officially closed the resumption of Disney last season, Rachel Nichols, the head of ESPN and known as the "NBA's first beautiful journalist" in China, was stabbed in the hands of an NBA reporter at the New York Times during the hotel quarantine, and she complained to a friend on the phone that her black female colleague Maria Taylor was robbing her job by skin color. Because Rachel is white, the controversy begins.
I read the report for the first time, and I talked to two ESPN friends, and we both ridiculed the current media people that "politics must be correct, including in private", and thought that this matter would slowly pass. Unexpectedly, in the past three days, things continued to ferment, and before the finals began yesterday, the ESPN/abc finals broadcasters arranged to be late - Taylor as the studio program host, Rachel no longer serves as a venue reporter, replaced by another black female journalist, Malika Andrews, in addition, Rachel's ace program The Jump was temporarily called off that day and resumed today after a day of suspension.
After the rebroadcast of the show today, bigger trouble came. The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) today issued an official statement protesting Taylor's treatment at ESPN and "publicly interviewing" three executives, including ESPN's president, for explanations.
Malika Andrews。
Before proceeding to the discussion, I will post the core content of Rachel's personal phone call:
I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world. She covers football. She covers basketball. 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.
I wish Maria Taylor great success. She does rugby coverage and also basketball coverage. Because you (ESPN executives) have been under pressure for a long time in terms of poor personnel diversity – this I personally feel very deeply from a female point of view, if you feel the need to assign her more work, then do it, but you should look elsewhere, you can't find it from me, take my job content.
A background needs to be added here first. For the famous mouths and famous people who appear on camera, good competitions and good programs are good platforms, in order to show more talents, obtain greater influence, and thus create higher value, so colleagues and even peers in the industry have always existed.
I believe that after reading this text, everyone's feelings should be similar: this is too normal, who has not privately complained about the company's bad? Who hasn't complained about a few colleagues in private? It's too much of a fuss! After listening to the audio, this feeling may be stronger, Rachel's tone is not harsh, the only thing she can feel is her competitiveness in her career.
But in the United States, race is never a trivial matter, not to mention that the protagonist is still a public figure. Former Clippers owner Donald Stella was kicked out, and the trigger was also a recording of private discrimination against black people.
There are more details in the New York Times investigative report. The call was recorded last July, when Taylor quickly got the recording — a colleague who leaked the recording to her was later punished internally by ESPN. This past year, Taylor refused to work with Rachel, and Taylor's partners at NBA Countdown, including the famous Woj and the famous Jaylen Rose, at one point considered striking to support her during last season's Finals... Then, more recently, a recording of the phone suddenly leaked to the New York Times. It is not whether it is related or not, this is the key period for Taylor and ESPN to negotiate a renewal, and the contract will expire at the end of July.
The New York Post reported (not excluding that it may be a certain aspect to confuse public opinion) that Taylor opened his mouth when talking about the renewal of the contract, and wanted to earn the same annual salary as the top stephen Smith at $8 million, while ESPN currently reported her only four or five million. Some American counterparts go to dig up family history, Rachel's parents are one of Hollywood directors, the other is a TV station celebrity, the relationship background is deep; and even, there are gossip about her and the star, Heat player Jimmy Butler once appeared on Twitter hot search.
After the New York Times report came out, Rachel opened with an apology in The Jump on Monday, saying 27 seconds, and the black ball critics Richard Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins on the same stage each said 40 seconds, and both of them also attracted questions and criticism for praising and supporting Rachel, and Perkins even had to do a live broadcast to defend himself. So much so that now espnon colleagues are afraid to go on The Jump (which may be one of the reasons for the temporary suspension), fearing that even if they don't say anything, they will cause trouble, after all, it is a matter of position.
Rachel Nichols。
In her apology, Rachel reiterated a journalistic principle she believed in — that journalists should not allow themselves to be in the spotlight. But it was clear that she had become a hot spot in the Finals, and at the NBA's regular press conference for the league president today, Xiao Hua was forced to respond to the incident: "It's heartache... It is a very unfortunate thing that two women in the industry are opposed... No one's career should be erased by a sentence or two. ”
But in fact, confrontation has become the absolute thread of the social media era, with honey and black, black and white, with fewer and fewer middle grounds – and it is difficult to get attention , creating a vicious circle, moral kidnapping is everywhere, and story reversals become commonplace. This situation has a tendency to intensify under the epidemic, because the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and the antagonism will only be stronger.
At this point in the story, ugly truths begin to surface. I have to admit that there have always been some unfair and even discriminated treatment of black people in the United States, but in the past two years, this BLM (black life is also important) movement has overcorrected the whole society - any organization must be pluralistic, everywhere must have a black figure, political correctness is beginning to be more important than ability and effort, is this fair? Do black people have to be recognized and loved by white people to be successful? The reality is that some opportunists see the value behind this antagonism, use emotional antagonism to achieve purposes and obtain benefits, and the real value is abandoned. And this may be an important reason for the current inefficiency of American society.
Recently, I happened to see the TED talk "The Story of Two Systems" by Observer Network Li Shimo, who said that the world does not only have a feasible mode of operation, society should be inclusive and open, the question is, "Do we have enough courage to embrace it?" ”