With racial tensions at a drastic high these days, ESPN decided to play it safe and pulled a network announcer from Virginia football game due to his name, Robert Lee.
For those living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, the White Nationalist/Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA on August 12 was centered around protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate General, Robert E. Lee.
In an effort to avoid riling up any kind of controversy on their part, ESPN decided it best to remove announcer Robert Lee from calling the September 2 football game. UVA is the same school where the racially motivated riot broke out which left three innocent people dead and dozens injured, after all
Robert Lee is now scheduled to work the Youngstown State’s game at the University of Pittsburgh on September 2.
According to RawStory a spokesman for the sports network insisted that the decision to reassign Lee to another game was a mutual decision. “When the protests in Charlottesville were happening, we raised with him the notion of switching games,” ESPN spokesman Chris LaPlaca said. “We didn’t make him. We asked him. Eventually we mutually agreed to switch.”
While the intentions were honorable, social media is disappointed in the decision. Many feel the Asian-American Lee should call the Virginia game against TWilliam & Mary and not be punished just because of his name.
Check out some of the reactions below and on the flip.
https://twitter.com/LATiffani1/status/900317726442377216
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Photo: ESPN
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