Former ESPN host Jemele Hill is set to publish a memoir in 2021, announced Henry Holt and Company yesterday.
Hill – a Detroit native and graduate of Michigan State University – is a staff writer for The Atlantic and the host of the Spotify Original podcast “Jemele Hill is Unbothered.”
“I’m truly thankful to be publishing my first book with Henry Holt,” said Hill in a statement released by the publishing company. “I’m excited about the opportunity to stretch myself and grow. I hope that by sharing some very personal experiences in this memoir — things I’ve never shared publicly before — people will have a better understanding of who I am. I also hope by sharing my story, people realize their circumstances don’t have to dictate their capabilities or contributions.”
The former ESPN reporter caused a stir in 2017 after tweeting that “Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself with other white supremacists.”
Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
The company reprimanded Hill at the time, although she was not fired. She left the company in September 2018.
ESPN Statement on Jemele Hill: pic.twitter.com/3kfexjx9zQ
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 12, 2017
Hill expressed similar sentiments in a tweet after President Trump’s speech on Monday
“I don’t know who needs to hear this but condemning white supremacy in a speech isn’t proof Donald Trump has changed or become more presidential. He’s still a white supremacist,” she tweeted on Monday. “He will still demonize and dehumanize people of color because that’s what he truly believes.”
I don’t know who needs to hear this but condemning white supremacy in a speech isn’t proof Donald Trump has changed or become more presidential. He’s still a white supremacist. He will still demonize and dehumanize people of color because that’s what he truly believes.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) August 5, 2019
She also touched on the topic in a July piece for The Atlantic, where she pushed back on ESPN’s “no politics” policy after a network host criticized Trump on-air.
“A no-politics-unless-it’s-sports-related policy seems especially naive and tricky to navigate when the president of the United States not only makes overtly racist comments, but also lays into women’s-soccer players, NBA owners, and other sports figures who disagree with him,” she writes in the piece. “Now ESPN has chosen a side, which is no side at all.”
Hill also said Trump is perpetuating a “dangerous narrative” that excludes people from being “fully American.”
“ESPN clearly believes in the notion that sports should be a refuge for fans,” she wrote. “But unfortunately, sports don’t take place in some alternate universe where real problems can’t interfere.”
Hill’s book currently has no announced name.
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter at The Michigan Star.
Photo “Jemele Hill” by Jemele Hill.
