#CancelJemeleHill trends as homophobic tweet resurfaces after Dave Portnoy feud, but Internet isn't having it
American journalist Jemele Hill, who is currently working with Atlantic, took a dig at the media outlet Barstool Sports on Monday (June 29) on Twitter by sharing an old video of its founder Dave Portnoy, in which he has stated that he confused Colin Kaepernick for a member of ISIS when he refused to stand for the national anthem. “Throw a head wrap on this guy and he’s a terrorist,” Portnoy had said.
Hill used the opportunity to call out Portnoy for his racist past by captioning the video, “This is terrible, but then again, consider the source.” What followed was a couple more tweets from both the parties, which has led to the trend #CancelJemeleHill on Twitter. On seeing Hill’s tweet, Portnoy took to his Twitter to share the screenshot of a random user, who has called Hill a transphobic in their post for one of her tweets from 2009.
Hill’s tweet reads, “My FB friends are calling him “Manny the Tranny”...so inappropriate and hilarious”. However, she was quick to provide more clarification on the same and extend her support to the transgender community by sharing a series of tweets. When one internet user urged Twitterati to cancel Jemele over her offensive tweet from over a decade ago, she said in response, “Let me address this. I saw some folks circulating this tweet from 2009 in my TL after I criticized Barstool’s Dave Portnoy for a racist skit that went viral yesterday. Let me explain why I kept this tweet up when it was brought to my attention”
“I kept the tweet up because I welcomed the opportunity to apologize and to show growth. See, unlike some people, I’m not defensive about my moments of failure. I learn from them and own it.” she added further. In the following tweet, she said that she doesn’t “care about Dave Portnoy or any of the other Barstool sycophants RT’ing this into my TL, like it’s some gotcha moment.” before stating that she would like to show the transgender community that she is an ally of theirs. Although Hill came forward to apologize for her mistakes from the past, social media users started trending #canceljemele expressing disapproval in her treatment of the transgender community as another tweet of hers resurfaced on the Internet in which she had stated, “Alright enough with the gay!”
One tweet read, “Sorry - in today’s cancel culture you are responsible for everything you have done since birth / regardless if you ‘learned from your mistakes’. Sooooo we are obligated by snowflake society to #CancelJemeleHill #CancelJemele @espn (don’t blame me - didn’t make the rules)”
“@jemelehill your transphobic behavior has finally caught up with you. @TheAtlantic should cancel you immediately. There’s no room in woke America for your bigotry!!! @TheAtlantic DO THE RIGHT THING #CancelJemele #CancelJemeleHill” added another.
Meanwhile, some Twitter users have noted that the majority of tweets against Hill are shared by white men who want to simply cancel a black woman. “Oh look at all the white men tweeting #CancelJemele & Black folx think that all of this about a 11 year old tweet is just random huh mmmmK. #DoBetter y’all love to find any reason to drag Black women. GTFOH #AllBlackLivesMatter tho huh.” read one. While another user said, “I’m scrolling through #CancelJemele and it’s almost all white men.”
One Twitter user added “Whoever hollarIing this nonsense need to check her resume. @jemelehill is an has been a warrior for the cause when everybody else was scared to speak up. Y’all always allow them to assasinate the character of our best soldiers. SMH."