Stephen A. Smith Dismisses Racism: "It's Not Prevalent"

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith has ventured beyond sports in recent years, expanding into topics such as politics on his Sirius show, Straight Shooter, and his self-titled podcast. However, just as controversial as his sports takes often are, his political takes are drawing fire as well.

Smith has been soft-launching a possible presidential run for some time. While the idea of a sports TV personality with no government experience at any level running for the nation’s highest office would have once been laughable, things have obviously changed.

And Smith doesn’t think that his career so far or his race would be an obstacle. In a recent interview with Robert Costa of CBS News, which has drawn its own controversy under the direction of right-wing news influencer Bari Weiss, Smith offered another political hot take.

When he was asked whether he thought racism would be an obstacle to his presidential ambitions, Smith said no.

“I know it exists. I know that you can’t escape it,” he told Costa on CBS Sunday Morning, “but I do not believe it is as prevalent as some on the left would like us to believe.”

He added, “I do believe a vast majority of Americans judge you on the content of your individual character rather than the color of your skin.”

Smith thinks the public is not as concerned about race as about other things when it comes to what they want from a future leader of the free world.

“It’s not about race. It’s about the fact that they don’t give a damn about it because they got their own problems.”

In the same interview, Smith said he’d run as a Democrat, saying that he holds views that are both liberal and conservative. One of the more conservative is that he believes he could solve the border problem and that more police on the street is the solution to crime.

“I’m calling 911 when there’s a problem. I know you’re calling 911 when there’s a problem. I’ll be damned if there’s going to be less police officers out there. There’s going to be more. That’s me. I would focus on a flourishing economy and making sure we did everything we could. Because when you have something to lose, you know how to behave.”

Smith has yet to officially declare his presidential aspirations, but said in the interview that he’s still giving “strong consideration to being on that debate stage” in 2027.

Naturally, social media felt a way about this. See reactions below.