Sage Steele is at odds with some of her ESPN co-workers according to Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal. Flint reports that Steele told ESPN management that she believes she was left out of The Undefeated’s special on race that aired on ESPN last month because she isn’t “considered by certain Black colleagues to be an authentic voice for the Black community.”
Flint writes that Steele believes she was specifically frozen out by Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves.
“I found it sad for all of us that any human being should be allowed to define someone’s ‘Blacknes,'” Steele said on the record. “Growing up biracial in America with a Black father and a white mother, I have felt the inequities that many, if not all Black and biracial people have felt—being called a monkey, the ‘n’ word, having ape sounds made as I walked by—words and actions that all of us know sting forever. Most importantly, trying to define who is and isn’t Black enough goes against everything we are fighting for in this country, and only creates more of a divide.”
ESPN issued a statement denying that Steele was excluded for the reasons she claims. Editor-in-chief of The Undefeated, Kevin Merida, says he would welcome the chance to work with Steele in the future and added that the site has no “litmus test for Blackness.”
