#CancelJemele Trends After Barstool Sports Resurfaces Old Transphobic Jemele Hill Tweet In Recent Feud
#CancelJemele was one of the most popular trends on Twitter Monday afternoon, part of a recent feud between former ESPN host and The Atlantic contributor Jemele Hill and Barstool Sports.
A 2009 transphobic tweet by Hill resurfaced, prompting the trend. In the post about former MLB player Manny Ramirez testing positive for gonadotropin, Hill wrote, “My FB Friends are calling him ‘Manny the Tranny’ …so inappropriate and hilarious.”
She called the tweet “wholly ignorant, dumb, and offensive” on Monday. Hill also defended her decision to leave up the tweet Monday, writing, “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.”
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.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 29, 2020
Hill and Barstool’s back-and-forth began with Hill quote-tweeting a Barstool clip where Dave Portnoy said he thought former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was Arabic. Hill responded, “This is terrible, but then again, consider the source.” On Monday, a Barstool blog entitled “Before and After” by Kevin Clancy defended the segment.
Shortly after, Portnoy retweeted a screenshot of Hill’s 2009 tweet about Ramirez. As #CancelJemele trended on Twitter, some defended Hill while others remained critical of her comments. In response to the hashtag, Hill listed some of her accolades and said “I’m sorry my success bothers you so much.”
Reflecting on the tweet which she lated deleted, Hill said she didn’t care about Barstool recirculating the post, rather not being a good ally for the trans community.
I don’t care about Dave Portnoy or any of the other Barstool sycophants RT’ing this into my TL, like it’s some gotcha moment. I care about the trans community I belittled and offended. If they don’t see me as an ally because of this, it’s my job to show them that I am.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 29, 2020
