Source: Juan David Granda / Getty
When ESPN commentator Sage Steele isn’t joining fellow coontrarian Jason Whitlock in being the best sunken place correspondents the sports journalism world has ever seen, she’s joining the ever-growing list of anti-vaxx Black celebrities who insist that spreading loud and wrong medical misinformation during an ongoing pandemic is the best use of their platforms. (Also, see Jason Whitlock.)
Steele recently sat down with ex-NFL quarterback Jay Cutler on his podcast so she could express her outrage at ESPN, which is now owned by Disney, for requiring that all its employees get vaccinated as a COVID-19 protection measure. During the episode dated for Wednesday, Steele cried butterscotch tears about how she had to get the shot to keep her job, even though she “didn’t want to do it.”
“I work for a company that mandates it and I had until September 30th to get it done or I’m out,” she said. “I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is sick and it’s scary to me in many ways. I just, I’m not surprised it got to this point, especially with Disney, I mean a global company like that.”
According to HuffPost, days prior to her “I heart pseudoscience” whine-o-thon with Cutler, Steele retweeted a post from Orlando Magic power forward Jonathan Isaac—another tragic Negro of the anti-vax persuasion—saying, “I believe it is your God-given right to decide if taking the vaccine is right for you!”
First of all, I’m not sure where all these people are finding this religious doctrine that tells them our rights are dictated, not by government legislators, but by their respective deities, but besides that, there’s the hypocrisy of being selective when it comes to whose rights should be observed.
It is true that people have the individual right to refuse the vaccine. That’s why there is not a single local or federal law mandating that every American get the shot. Sure, there are mandates that require government employees to be vaccinated, but one does not have to work for the U.S. government.
The point is, anti-vaxxers aren’t the only ones with rights. Privately owned businesses and corporations, such as Disney and ESPN, have the right to require vaccines for their employees who, again, aren’t being forced to work there.
Workers also have the right to expect their employers to provide a healthy working environment, which many business owners are doing through their own “god-given” right to implement vaccine mandates.
The problem for people like Steele, Isacc and the rest isn’t that their rights are being violated, it’s that their rights aren’t being allowed to cancel out the rights of others, or the greater good of the general public.
And, I’m sorry, but that’s just tough s**t.
