ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Trashed on Twitter for Taking Shot at ‘Black Lives Matter’ Movement

“Where is all the noise about #BlackLivesMatter when black folks are killing black folks?” Smith tweets, igniting an online firestorm

Stephen A. Smith (Facebook; Twitter)
Facebook; Twitter

Stephen A. Smith is no stranger to controversy, but it seems he may have met his match on Twitter.

The ESPN commentator was taken to task Tuesday on the social media site after he weighed in on the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

“Where is all the noise about #BlackLivesMatter when black folks are killing black folks?” Smith tweeted.

He followed it up with more tweets, including, “I’m a black man. Of course I know #BlackLivesMatter. You can’t boo a presidential candidate just b/c he says ‘all lives matter’.”

Then Smith tweeted: “I didn’t hear Gov. Martin O’Malley’s interview. And I’m not debating the significance of “Black Lives (cont).” He was referring to “Black Lives Matter” protesters who booed Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley off the stage Saturday at the Netroots Nation Conference — a town hall for liberal activists. Along with his tweet, Smith included a link to a statement on Twitlonger.

“I didn’t hear Gov. Martin O’Malley’s interview. And I’m not debating the significance of ‘Black Lives Matter.’ I’m a BLACK MAN! I know this,” his Twitlonger statement said. “Nor am I focusing on O’Malley’s words or context itself. That’s really not the issue to me. The issue is: as much as attention was so desperately aimed towards ‘Black Lives Matter,’ where is all this noise when Black folks are getting killed in our communities every single day? Does it only matter when we’re getting killed OUTSIDE OF OUR COMMUNITY, by folks who look differently than us?”

His comments didn’t go over too well on Twitter, where users took him to task.

“No man. No. Don’t do this,” responded rapper-songwriter Talib Kweli.

“Stephen A Smith isn’t a lot of things but he certainly is stupid,” tweeted another detractor.

While a third added, “I am so bewildered at Stephen A Smith. So disappointed.”

The response to Smith’s comments was overwhelmingly negative, but not everyone disagreed with what he had to say, including former talk show host Montel Williams, who tweeted: “@stephenasmith may well have just whacked a hornet’s nest but he’s right…”

“Stephen a smith was speaking facts in his tweets yall are just too ignorant to understand,” wrote one Twitter user.

Another chimed in with, “Stephen A. Smith is the man.”

Below is a sampling of some of the negative reaction to Smith’s comments which prompted him to become a trending topic on Twitter throughout Tuesday.

https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/623549082473099264

https://twitter.com/AFoulToGive/status/623595008051007489

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