ESPN's Stephen Smith Called 'Uncle Tom' for Defending Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, recently alluded to an unpopular fact–young black males are disproportionate perpetrators of violent crimes in the United States. Everyone knows this. As such, most rational-thinking people hold certain negative stereotypes about them. Not every young black male walking down the street in a hoodie is a criminal, but when taking personal safety into account, it’s common sense to be aware.

Cuban said, “I mean, we’re all prejudiced in one way or another. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking back to the other side of the street.”

A predictable backlash ensued over the black kid remark, but none about the bald, tattooed white men remark. Only among too-sensitive blacks, and whites seeking to morally one-up other whites, are facts deemed “racist.”

ESPN’s Stephen Smith called out the double standard and said that blacks ignore negative racial stereotypes about blacks, making them worse:

Smith explained that walking to the other side of the street because you see someone who looks suspicious is not a racially charged statement. “We want to pounce on him making this statement and alluding to black folks.”

Whether geography, race, religion or any of the thousands of other factors that shape our upbringing, every person holds certain biases. “He talked about the prejudices that exist in all spectrums by all of us,” said Smith. “Are we going to sit here and literally act like we have no prejudices?”

He acknowledged that racism is still present, but countered the attempts to make the statement racist because Cuban used a black male as an example. “I do understand to some degree there is a level of racism,” said Smith. “That does not mean every single issue is race related.”

Based on these and other factual statements, black liberals turned to the old standby, an epithet used against black people who dare to say anything that makes blacks look bad: Uncle Tom. From the Washington Times:

“’Stephen A. Smith is a sellout,’ ‘Stephen A. Smith is an Uncle Tom,’ ‘Stephen A. Smith ain’t black,’ ‘you ain’t one of us’ — these are the kinds of things that were said to me yesterday,” Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take.”

Cuban apologized for offending Trayvon Martin’s family with the hoodie reference but won’t apologize for statistical facts. Smith said he won’t apologize, either. You can’t stop people from ad homimen and refusing to deal with your argument, but you can stop apologizing.