Sage Steele Continues To Cancel Cookout Invites
Straddles The Fence Of Blackness
Sage Steele doesn't want to come to your cookout.
Whenever allowed to showcase her solidarity with Blackness, she either straddles the fence or flat out questions the choice.
However, Steele forgets choices have been made for you in America. Any dereliction of this truth seems out of touch. Steele recently appeared on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler's podcast, UnCut, covering much ground, exposing her innermost thoughts.
The episode description says Steele talks about her start at ESPN, hating Notre Dame, rude men in sports media, social media attacks, and mandatory COVID vaccines. It misses her naivete about Barack Obama choosing to select Black on the Census and her wish to select bi-racial, which is not an option.
While working as a fill-in on The View, Steele remembered how Barbara Walters ripped into her on live TV and after about being bi-racial instead of being Black.
"What happens when you fill out your Census? If they make you pick a race, what do you choose?" said Walters.
"Well both," said Steele.
"Well you can't. Barack Obama chose Black and he's bi-racial," said Walters.
"Well, congratulations to the President, that's his thing, and I think that fascinating considering his Black Dad was nowhere to be found but his white Mom and grandma raised him but hey you do you and i'm going to do me and then they put up a picture behind me of my parents and my brothers and me."
"Listen, I'm pretty sure my white Mom was there when I was born, my white family loves me as much as my Black family and I got killed for this, Jay."
Steele's father is Black, and her mother is white. Being proud of your multi-racial heritage is beautiful; however, the point flew directly over Steele's head.
Barack Obama wanted to make history as a representative of marginalized people. Honoring his father's Kenyan heritage was a double win as the President of the United States regardless of his father's transgressions.
However, to defend her bi-racial identity, she forsakes that America stigmatizes people of color, so pride is tantamount for Black people.
"You're the Candace Owens of ESPN," said Cutler smiling.
"I respect the hell out of Candace Owens," said Steele.
"So do I," said Cutler.
"Because whether you agree or not she doesn't give a crap what you think and she's going to say what's on her mind. Isn't it funny though that people have to make those comparisons because we happen to have a similar skin color?"
Steele recounted how she began feeling canceled by the culture four years ago after stating her opinion on Mike Evans' disgust with former President Donald Trump's election to President.
In 2016, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver was one of the most high-profile NFL stars to protest during the US national anthem pre-game.
Evans posted on Instagram on Election Day that he did not vote. He responded "no" in a comment on a post by Bucs receiver Louis Murphy asking, "Did you #vote?"
"ESPN reposted what he said about being disgusted about the election and I remember thinking, wait a minute, you didn't even vote," said Steele. "So I didnt respect that and tweeted some stuff and that's where my downfall began in the eyes of many."
Steele recounted how death threats and vile comments about her daughter's abounded since then.
Steele's defensive position of a bi-racial identity leaves no room for the chance to stand in tandem with Black people. Although she said, she is proud of being both Black and white, claiming it to be "the best of both worlds."
Still, the reality is that Black people are under-represented and in a constant fight for socio-economic equality. Steele also makes a judgemental statement about Obama's father and the former President's decision to claim an "absentee father."
It feeds the popular narrative of the fatherless Black home, and disparaging Black fatherhood needs no accelerant to heighten the flames.
Steele's message is always lost in translation. She wants to prove something for bi-racial people that doesn't need to be verified. Instead, it excludes the opportunity to show solidarity for the repressed side of her two worlds.