Race and Culture in Sports: A New Voice for ESPN

By Zachary Marcus

In a sports world dominated by African-American athletes and the white journalists that cover them, Kevin Merida is looking to bridge the gap.

Moderated by Povich Center Director George Solomon and Merrill College graduate student Rachel McNair  The Undefeated’s Editor-in-Chief Kevin Merida came to speak about this goal and myriad topics involving diversity in journalism Feb. 17 in the Eaton Theater of Knight Hall.

Solomon began the event by asking when the site would be up and the goal of the site. Although he could not comment on when the site would be up, Merida did talk about what the site will have published when it goes live.

“We’re going to be writing about the intersections of race, sports, and culture,” said Merida.

Solomon then asked Merida why he left the Washington Post after 22 years to take this new position with ESPN.

“You know it’s not every day that you get a chance to essentially start your own digital product, you know your own site,” said Merida. “It reminded me a lot of when I was a student and we started a black college newspaper on campus and just the feeling of exhilaration, of trying something new.”

A hot topic recently wasCam Newton’s handling of his team’s loss in the Super Bowl and the way race played a role in the way he was perceived. Solomon inquired about how The Undefeated would handle a story like that in the future.

“We would have been looking for history, going back to see how others have reacted after Super Bowl defeats,” said Merida. “We would probably try to talk to people close to him, try to unearth as many different perspectives as possible.”

He went on to talk about how he will be collaborating with others from ESPN to tell these kinds of stories. Some shows he mentioned for possible collaboration were “His and Hers” and “Outside the Lines”.

“We may have an outlet for them that they didn’t have where they are now,” said Merida.

He also discussed how, while long form is important and was the mark of ambition in the past, in today’s media age reporters need to “pioneer short form ambition.”

Some examples he mentioned were a video series of clips no more than two minutes long and a picture series, all of which, he said, should be viewable on mobile devices.

When asked about what kind of stories will make The Undefeated different than other sites, he talked about a lesser known story of an all-black college soccer team that had their title stripped as an example.

The next Povich Center event will be Talking Jobs and Internships with the Povich Center, held on Feb. 23 in the Eaton Theater of Knight Hall. Some confirmed participants include representatives from the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, and ESPN980.