Roland Martin Calls Jason Whitlock ‘Stephen From Django’ Amid Social Media Dispute
Roland Martin attends the 2023 HOPE Global Forum at Hyatt Regency Atlanta on December 12, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Source: Derek White / Getty
Never one to hold his tongue, journalist Roland Martin reminded his hundreds of thousands of followers on social media exactly how he feels about former sports pundit-turned rabid MAGA supporter Jason Whitlock.
The two have had a simmering beef for years now but last week Whitlock – who’s been on an anti-Black woman crusade, particularly as of late – took deliberate steps to take an apparent unprovoked swipe at Martin.
MORE: Jason Whitlock Says Angel Reese Needed To ‘Cover Up’ At WNBA Draft, Not White Athletes
Whitlock, who has in recent months done everything from co-sign antisemitism to imply that women shouldn’t vote, on Thursday posted two words accompanied by a pair of images showing Martin.
“Down bad,” Whitlock wrote on X, formerly Twitter, with one picture that appeared to be doctored showing Martin wearing a T-shirt bearing the message: “Twerk like a Black woman.” The other photo was a snapshot of Martin dancing alongside Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign.
Martin, never one to shy away from a social media confrontation, fired back on Sunday morning addressing Whitlock’s career arc.
“Says the dude who could only find a job working for @GlennBeck,” Martin quote-responded on X, referring to the conservative pundit who’s made a living in part from espousing anti-Black statements over the years.
Then Martin dropped the mic with an implication of race betrayal: “Jason Whitlock IS Stephen from Django.”
Says the dude who could only find a job working for @GlennBeck. Jason Whitlock IS Stephen from Django. https://t.co/5GhjSIMFvE
— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) June 23, 2024
To the uninitiated, “Stephen from Django” is a reference to the house slave character in the movie “Django Unchained” which was immortalized by actor Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Stephen professes his undying love for his cruel slave master while trying to sabotage other slaves to curry favor with his white owners.
A social media user later pointed out that the shirt that Whitlock tried to mock Martin for wearing actually said, “Vote like a Black woman.”
The photo of Martin alongside Clinton was taken back in 2015 at an event at Claflin University. During a moment of levity amid an otherwise serious conversation at the South Carolina HBCU, Roland taught Clinton how to “wobble,” a popular dance at the time. Martin later posted footage from the moment in a display that was the antithesis of the shame that Whitlock implied in his post.
Martin and Whitlock famously clashed in 2018 during a debate on Martin’s daily digital news show, #RolandMartinUnfiltered. Sparring over topics centered on race, Whitlock notably discredited claims that “there’s an epidemic of police killing African-Americans” and effectively suggested athletes should “shut up and dribble” instead of speaking out about social issues.
Martin wasn’t the only journalist to lay in on Whitlock this weekend.
ESPN anchor Stan Verrett held no punches on Sunday while responding to one of Whitlock’s many rants about the WNBA that always seem to scapegoat Black players.
In this particular instance, Whitlock admitted that his past criticism of “unskilled” rookie star Angel Reese — a Black woman — was hasty.
“In other words, ‘I never really saw her play before I decided to attack her needlessly, because I knew it would play well with the anti-Black audience I’m desperately seeking to retain some relevance after my many firings,’” Verrett responded to Whitlock on X. “Fixed that for you.”
In other words, “I never really saw her play before I decided to attack her needlessly, because I knew it would play well with the anti-Black audience I’m desperately seeking to retain some relevance after my many firings.” Fixed that for you. https://t.co/vXYlBicOc2
— stan verrett (@stanverrett) June 23, 2024
Verrett later explained that he’d taken umbrage with Whitlock for nearly 20 years – ever since Whitlock defended shock jock Don Imus calling the Rutgers University women’s basketball players “nappy headed hoes” in 2007. Verrett was on a radio talk show debating the comments at the time.
“I wondered who they could possibly find to defend Imus. They found Whitlock. It’s been on ever since,” Verrett recalled.
Whitlock, for his part, remains frighteningly on-brand, including a recent sympathetic interview with the disgraced former CEO of Papa John’s – a white man who has notably defended using the N-word – questioning the fame of Olympic record-holder Simone Biles in comparison to WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark — a white woman — and blaming Black mothers for the brutal and fatal 2022 police beating of unarmed driver Tyre Nichols in Memphis.
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
Jason Whitlock Defends Caitlin Clark From ‘Racists’ While Hating On Black Women In Sports
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