Gayle King responded that the clip with her and Lisa Leslie discussing Kobe’s past was taken out of context. She stated the question came up during an interview that veered into side conversations on various topics. When I saw the clip, I didn’t like it and it pissed me off. But even if it wasn’t out of context, and she had doubled down, no one has the right to do what Snoop started.
He represents a segment of Black men who are quick to throw black women away and threaten violence as a first resort for any perceived misstep by Balck women. Period. Snoop’s behavior threatened Gayle, and by proxy, black women like a mob. The message? Get out of line or challenge black men on anything and it is open season. And let’s not pretend Snoop would have directed the same threats at his favorite felon baking bestie. For a number of reasons, he would not dare risk calling her out, like this if she had been the one who brought up Kobe’s past. This level of vitriol is generally reserved for black women specifically. Whether you agree with Gayle, her point of view, or her timing, what Snoop Dogg is doing is punk-ass behavior.
In his fake defense of Kobe, Mr. Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. pissed me off more than Gayle’s question to Lisa. I am offended he placed Kobe in the same category as Cosby. By all accounts since the time of the allegations, Kobe Bryant was a man who did the work of change and personal growth from that time in his life. Cosby at 80 years old remains stuck in his violent mindset and beliefs.
Kobe and Cosby are not even close to the same.
Cosby drugged dozens of women into a corpse-like state, then raped them. Yet Broadus declared a serial rapist as more deserving of respect than a black woman asking a question at a sensitive time. That is whose freedom Snoop advocated for. His call to action wasn’t to center Vanessa or she & Kobe’s daughters, but to freeing Cosby. Calvin gave a platform to a man who hates women, instead of considering the benefit of the doubt for Gayle King. Snoop thinking a serial rapist deserves the same level of respect as Kobe Bryant, disturbs me more than Gayle’s ill-timed question.
I cannot see how Snoop’s behavior represents the man he called a friend. When we hear the stories of how much Kobe loved being the father of daughters and sought to lift the voices of women, Snoop’s excuses for eviscerating a black woman and venerating a dangerous criminal sound like hypocritical horseshit looking for an excuse to do what weak men do.
