Tiffany Cross defends Jemele Hill after Dez Bryant calls her out for criticizing him
Cross chimed in with her say amid a Twitter exchange between Hill and Bryant about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, who is currently a free agent, criticized Colin Kaepernick this week on a podcast for not creating jobs — and got blasted by a political pundit.
The clip of Bryant on the “I AM ATHLETE” podcast, featuring Brandon Marshall, Chad Ochocinco, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, went viral.
“I respect Colin Kaepernick. But there is one thing that I don’t respect, and I said when I get the opportunity and to get on the stage and say it, I would say it. And I love him to death. So there ain’t no hate or nothing like that,” Bryant said.
“But brotha, you had the biggest opportunity in the world to create jobs, to build jobs, to give jobs to people,” he continued. “The people you was talking about. The people that you were so-called ‘standing up for.’ People who stood beside you, people who lost their jobs because of you. Where you at? I ain’t heard from you. He brought the awareness, and that’s why I respect him.”
Sports journalist and podcaster Jemele Hill responded to the sport star’s comments on Twitter, writing, “With all due respect @DezBryant, this is uninformed. Colin Kaepernick has created a publishing company, a SPAC that’s raising $300M for social justice initiatives, a production company, etc. On top of founding the Know Your Rights Camp. I don’t get the point of dragging his name.”
Bryant then responded to Hill, saying, “I’m a product of media hate so I get it.. @jemelehill you could have called me & got a better understanding of what I was saying ..but you have your own motive… I’ve reached out to kap for yrs and no response…raising 300 mil would be easy if we had unity amongst athletes.”
Tiffany Cross, who hosts MSNBC’s Saturday morning political show, The Cross Connection, responded to Bryant on Twitter.
“Yet another bad take from this dude [with the woman facepalming emoji],” Cross tweeted. “Imagine attacking a Black woman (an accomplished journalist and all-around dope human being at that) on the heels of attacking Kap. All while peddling the *their* talking points.”
Cross’ tweet has since been deleted.
Since being shut out of the NFL in 2016 after kneeling during the pre-game “Star Spangled Banner” performance in silent protest to bring attention to police violence, Kaepernick has since launched a charitable foundation, his Know Your Rights Camp and Kaepernick Publishing.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!
