Skip, there is nothing cool about rape.

There are certain folks in America who shouldn't be on television talking to millions of people.






Skip Bayless, the ESPN commentator and co-host of First Take, happens to be one of them.






"Looks like the guys over at ESPN's First Take may need to take sensitivity courses in women's issues ASAP, especially if they're going to venture into issues involving domestic violence and rape.

Just a few months back, Stephen A. Smith alluded to the fact that women shouldn't provoke men into violent confrontations. Now Skip Bayless believes that Kobe Bryant's 2003 rape charges, in which the basketball star was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old in a hotel room in Colorado, added to his street cred—thus making him more marketable.

"Remember Kobe pre-Eagle, Colorado? He failed in his first sneaker deal because he was just too clean-cut, and I think it was Adidas that had him first—correct me if I'm wrong—but he couldn't sell sneakers because he didn't have enough edge," Bayless said. "But then, post-Eagle, Colorado, it brought a little attention to him—like it gave him a little bit of sizzle." 

Host Cari Champion looked visibly stunned at Bayless' take. She quickly followed the segment with, "All right, we are going to leave it right there." And Smith seemed to be actually biting his tongue. " [Source]

Oh no he didn't associate rape with having "street cred".

Apology to follow in 5...4...3...2...

Finally, the folks over at the Brookings Institute commissioned a study which clearly shows that "white privilege" is not something black folks like to throw out there to make white folks feel guilty.

From the looks of this very detailed study it would appear that white privilege does in fact exist.

Of course most of us black folks knew that all along, and I suspect that quite a few white folks knew this as well.  It's just that some of them could not admit it to themselves because it would diminish whatever accomplishments they feel that they worked so hard to achieve.

"The findings in the paper, co-authored by Brookings economists Richard V. Reeves and Isabel V. Sawhill, run counter to the beliefs of some, like Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who argue that racism in this country has diminished to the point that white privilege no longer exists. O'Reilly visited The Daily Show last week and argued that any person, regardless of race, can get rich in America so long as they work hard.

But opportunities for success are clearly not that simple, for a host of reasons: The myriad legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, decades of racist housing policies, educational disparities, employment discrimination, and a race-fueled War on Drugs.

Where you start in life financially matters a lot, too: If you're born in the poorest 20 percent of families of any race, yet still earn a college degree, you have roughly the same chance of being stuck in the poorest bracket as rich high-school dropouts do of staying in the richest bracket (16 and 14 percent, respectively).

Upward mobility is a much harder climb than it would seem."

Now if you work hard- whether you are black or white- your chances of achieving "upward mobility" are much better. It's just that the obstacles outlined in the article makes it that much harder to climb into the American middle class if you happen to be a person of color.

But black folks, don't be discouraged. You have come this far with the specter of white privilege hanging over you. 

Just pretend it doesn't exist, put your head down, and get to work.