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Is Kenya Barris a woman? Internet enraged after sportscaster Mark Jones misgenders ‘Black-ish’ producer

In a viral video, Mark is seen talking in awe of Kenya Barris while using 'she' for him while mentioning several of his past Television programs

The NBA season is tickling some funny bones for basketball aficionados and also offending many. In the September 3 match between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets, ESPN sportscaster Mark Jones referred to Kenya Barris as a ‘woman’. In a viral video, Mark is seen talking in awe of Kenya Barris while using “she” for him while mentioning several of his past Television programs. Jones also referred to the shoes that players were wearing which had an imprint of Clark Atlanta University, of which Barris is an alumnus. “She is an alum of Clark Atlanta. She’s is the executive producer of ‘Black-ish’ on ABC. A great show,” Jones said in the announcement while broadcasting the match. 

Kenya Barris is a writer-actor-producer celebrated for his critically acclaimed ‘Black-ish’ that revolves around an upper-middle-class African-American family. The award-winning series also has two spin-offs, ‘Grown-ish’ and ‘Mixed-ish’. Besides the series, Barris was the writer for the Television series ‘The Game and Soul Food’ and co-created ‘America's Next Top Model’. More recently in 2020, Barris made his acting debut in a series created by himself and ordered by Netflix titled ‘#BlackAF’ that centers on sharp social critiques. The series as per Indie Wire is roughly inspired by Barris's experience with parenting, relationships, race and culture. 
 
So while Jones misgendered Barris, the Internet took to Twitter to ridicule him, saying he is trying to sound “cool” in knowing who Kenya Barris is. A user tweeted, “Mark Jones is calling the Rockets vs. OKC game and just called Kenya Barris a SHE... twice! And it wouldn’t have been that bad if he didn’t try to sound so cool in knowing who Kenya Barris is.”

Another concurred on his mistake, “Did this announcer just call Kenya Barris a woman??” 

Another user who was disgruntled by this misgendering wrote, “Sports announcers acting like they know about HBCU’s talking about “the executive producer of blackish Kenya Barris, *she* went to Clark Atlanta.” 

Some called Jones’ as drunk during the match. “Marc Davis is drunk.. he called Kenya Barris a woman than said Chris Paul was on the bench while he's in the game lmao.”  

Others also showed their rage on the misgendering. “Holy shit the NBA broadcast both misgendering Kenya Barris and calling him 'one of the producers of Blackish'...that’s like a whole goddamn season of Black AF.” 

Writer and editor Hanif Abdurraqib tweeted, “Am I trippin or did the announcer maybe misgender Kenya Barris back there.” He further wrote, “I was just about to say that I maybe misheard but then there came the correction lmao and the way he did it initially! He was like "Kenya Barris?? You don't know who she is?" 

As per ESPN, Mark Jones has worked a wide variety of assignments since his debut in 1990 at the sports channel. He is a play-by-play commentator for ESPN’s NBA and college football coverage where his previous assignments included the WNBA, NBA Finals, and men’s and women’s college basketball.