Stephen A. Smith revealed his thoughts on NFL player Riley Cooper’s use of the N-word on ESPN’s “First Take.”
“We all make mistakes. It forces me to look at my community and be intellectually honest about this. In sports, when we go into the locker room and we hear the music blaring … we hear pro athletes echoing these same words. Most in the black community would be hypocrites if we denied that we used the word ourselves. Obviously it’s different when we hear the word from someone outside of our community. With the level of comfort Riley Cooper used the word, what responsibility do we have when we use the word in the presence of people outside of our community? The black community must ask ourselves do we play a role in the ease that it comes out of other people’s mouth?” Smith said.
After the statement, Twitter users immediately responded to Smith’s thoughts.
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