Reactions:
I. This was fantastic
II. There's another, bigger shoe that needs to drop. Because Whitlock hasn't been compensating, promoting, and giving hiring and firing power to Whitlock. The more important issue is why a sports network treats a subject as sensitive, complex, and important as race with such disregard and contempt they allow the Whitlocks and Stephen A. Smiths of the world to flourish.
III. The scariest parts of this piece were those about Whitlock's influence. The notion of him creating a black subsection on espn, and having the ability to hire writers, who would then have to censor themselves and allow his c00nery to continue unchecked lest they risk a paycheck....
IV. Why has it taken so long for this kind of high profile piece to be written? He's a mediocre writer, a racebaiter, a troll, a borderline fool. Yet this piece is coming years after he lined his pockets and ascended to a place of incredible influence within espn. Because people were more concerned about burning bridges and possibly getting a job from him than they were about the basic integrity of being a black person.
V. It's truly sad that blacks have to celebrate common decency as a great victory. There's a piece making the rounds today by a black writer who talks about how tiring it is to write about racism. He compares it to having to write an impassioned opinion piece against drunk drivers murdering children. Is essence: why do we have to keep writing, shouting, passionately pleading for people to demonstrate a decency that should be fundamental, implicit? White and black sports "journalists" alike have been citing black cultural pathology on air and in print as a legitimate sports talking point for years now with no repercussions. It has been an acceptable part of espn discourse to wonder whether bad black parenting makes black players unfit to play point guard, to win championships. This is insanity. And that's not on Whitlock, that's on the people who reward Whitlock. I'm hoping that piece is in the wings, but I highly doubt it.