Friday’s “First Take” on ESPN2 was a continuation of ESPN’s “An Undefeated Conversation: Athletes, Responsibility and Violence,” a town hall held in Chicago on Thursday.
Co-host Stephen A. Smith opened the discussion up by citing the difference between the shooting deaths of African-Americans like Paul O’Neal, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling and Philando Castille and how Charleston, SC shooter Dylann Roof, a white male, was arrested and then “police stopped to get him a burger at Burger King,” calling the difference “a problem.”
“We talk a lot about all lives matter, and obviously Black Lives Matter and the movement that they put forth and the attention to police violence against unarmed African-Americans,” Smith said. “We all know that’s real. I can give you the names. The Paul O’Neals — right from here– the Walter Scotts, the Alton Sterlings, the Philando Castilles and others. We think about the shooting in South Carolina where nine innocent individuals were gunned down by a young white male, Dylann Roof. He killed nine at a church in South Carolina.”
“The oldest victim was 87 years old,” he continued. “The youngest was 26. We want to make sure that everybody here in this audience, particularly the African-Americans in this audience understand, that when Dylann Roof is arrested but the police stopped to get him a burger at Burger King because he says he’s hungry, but black folks are getting killed, that’s a problem. And we understand that that’s something that has to be addressed because that dichotomy right there, that picture I just painted, speaks to what ails to the African-American community and is one of the reasons why you see the uproar that you have seen.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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