Ex-ESPN reporter Ed Werder is a white man. As both a sports reporter and a white man, Werder, and all those like him, make up some 90 percent of sports journalism, so when Sports Illustrated tweeted out that they had a spot for an entry-level news writer position, SI senior writer Charlotte Wilder saw this as a golden moment to push for women as applicants.
“If you can stand sitting near me in the office this is a v cool opportunity. Especially if you’re a woman trying to get into sports, you should message me—DMs are open,” Wilder tweeted, TMZ Sports reports.
Somehow, Werder got his knickers (I assume that Werder wears knickers, but admittedly, I don’t know this as a fact) all in a bunch.
“So men need not apply? Any others ineligible?” Werder tweeted with tears staining his whiteness.
Wilder responded, “Oh WOW you’re right, Ed, sorry for attempting to make sports media more than 10% female, my bad,” as TMZ Sports reports.
Werder replied: “I just always associated SI with hiring the best regardless of race, sex and other factors.”
Someone asked Werder why he was so white-man upset, considering that white men dominate sports journalism. Werder responded, according to TMZ:
Because next week, I’m going to be standing in front of a broadcasting class of young people and some will be males and I have to tell them they have the same chance at jobs like those one as all others.
One of Werder’s former colleagues, Mina Kimes—a senior writer at ESPN the Magazine—stepped in to explain to Werder the obvious point he kept missing.
“Encouraging women to apply for a position isn’t the same thing as ‘excluding’ men,” Kimes tweeted. “It’s helping female applicants network, which can be a challenge given the massive gender imbalance in our industry (which I’m sure you know exists).”
Werder didn’t respond, and something tells me it’s not because he actually got the point.
DISCUSSION
You know why our buddy Ed here felt so compelled to say that? It’s a defensive reaction. It’s because there has been this trend lately for white people to try to call the other party racist/sexist/whatever before they themselves get called out as one.
White people like this are the worst. They’re so caught up in their own privilege that they see anything pushing for equality as a threat. All this “I don’t see color” bullshit about how the best qualified person should always get the job has one major flaw. It assumes that we’re all starting out on a level playing field. There have been years worth of studies that prove that we aren’t. Whether he realizes it or not, Ed, and guys like him, see equality as a threat to their privilege. That’s the cause of their butthurt, and that’s also how some white people delude themselves into thinking that they’re being persecuted.
Get it through your heads: Just because more people want a seat at the table doesn’t mean anyone is trying to take your seat. You’re just used to having the table to yourselves.