>> If your vote didn't matter, then why would people have fought so hard to keep you from
voting? >> This is ESPN's Maria Taylor.
>> In a democracy the right to vote is the most powerful, non-violent tool we have.
>> Why is there something called voter suppression? >> Can anybody explain to me why in 2020,
it still takes you-
>> It's been an honor to share this almost 11 hour experience with y'all.
>> Just to vote. >> I don't want everybody to vote. Our leverage
in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
>> Why did it take till the 60s for poll taxes to be removed?
Why did black people have to wait for amendments to be passed in order to vote? People have
been fighting to keep people of color from coming to the polls and recognizing their
power for a reason. >> We do not want our freedom gradually, but
we want to be free now.
>> I'm not gonna give up, if I give up Then what am I saying about my future kids? What
am I saying about the future of my community? >> Black people in the south couldn't register
to vote simply because of the color of their skin.
>> We're all gonna have to step forward, put our fears to the side, not let that narrative
drive us and let the strength of our vote, of our voice, of where we are right now matter.
It has to matter. My name is Maria Taylor, and I'm voting because of voter oppression
and lack of educational resources. >> Maria Taylor has dealt with her fair share
of BS simply because she is a black woman in sports, and as Malcolm X put it.
>> The most disrespected person in America is the black woman.
>> When former Georgia stand out and current Buffalo Bills quarterback Jake Fromm was exposed
for saying, only elite white people should be allowed to purchase firearms Taylor expressed
her true, authentic view on the matter. >> As a black person in America you go throughout
the day assuming that people are not racist or that they do not have prejudice in their
body.
Because if we don't, we'd be mad all the time. >> Taylor took a page out of the leading voices
playbook here. And that voice is James Baldwin. >> To be Negro in this country, and to be
relatively conscious, is to be in a state of rage, almost all the time
>> Taylor continues. >> And then every time it's revealed and it's
someone that say you love or you've enjoyed covering, it hurts to your core. It's a death
by 1,000 razor cuts and that's how I feel when I heard about Jake Fromm.
>> She is a Georgia grad.
And is speaking on her real life experience as a black woman, and as a member of the media
who covered Jake Fromm. When this aired, Taylor, I'm sure received plenty of hate mail. One
bigot texted her mother, father, and brother. Here is what she shared on social media.
While another big night for the trash affirmative action hire whose job is to literally stand
around and ask stupid questions and make everything about the terroristic BLM group. What a blank
joke this blank likes to put people like Fromm on blast for speaking the truth. It's positively
factual that if you remove guns from blacks, we have less crime, less murder, and less
trash.
Blank behavior in general from bad people like literally. 100% concurrently, you get
the guns out of the blank hands, we watch crime drops, scientific. Yet that trash blank
Maria Taylor has to talk about 1,000 knives poking through, make everything about BLM,
and whine about race and emotions when it's facts.
You are the worst trash to watch on TV and it's a shame ESPN is a bunch of scared basic
trolls who let you do the best events. When Taylor went from NBA Countdown to being a
reporter on Monday Night Football, long-time Chicago Sports Radio host Dan McNeil, well,
took a jab at her for no reason.
He wrote on Twitter NFL sideline reporter or a host for the AVN annual awards presentation.
AVN stands for adult video news. Taylor responded as well as anyone could when she was put in
this difficult situation that she didn't ask to be put in. Well, Danny Dearest, if you
would like to continue making sexist comments about me, please bring your misogyny with
you to the NBA Countdown double header I'll be hosting tomorrow night.
Hey ladies, remember you can wear whatever you feel confident in. She spoke with the
words her father, an FBI agent for 27 years, told her brother at a young age when dealing
with police, the quote, comply or die. >> Could you imagine sitting your son down
and saying if you do not comply, you could die.
A cop asked him if he can search the car. My brother complies so he doesn't die. He
goes and searches his trunk and he claims that he saw sticks and stems in the back.
You know where they took my brother? Straight to jail. My dad just happened to be home.
And my dad said, before you say anything else, I am an FBI agent. I'm a special agent. I've
been here for 20 years. So what do you wanna tell me? And the police officer said, why
didn't he just tell me that he was the son of an FBI agent?
What if my brother didn't have the privilege of having a father who worked for the government?
He would have a rap sheet right now. >> So let's talk about the woman that that
bigot targeted in text messages. Taylor is on the front lines every day. She co-founded
a nonprofit mentorship program to help black college athletes navigate life after graduation.
They were coming to me as a sister, an aunt, as one of the few black people they saw, she
said. One of the young woman she took under her wing was the daughter of a mother who
was killed by a white supremacist in Charleston. Grayson Doctor was encouraged to see a therapist
by Taylor which she did.
She then decided to pursue a master's degree from Syracuse University. After she was accepted,
Taylor paid a portion of her tuition and helped her move into her apartment last summer. I
was in tears because I had never met her mom. But that was something she would be doing,
Taylor said.
It's sickening the attacks that she has to endure. But as we have seen, she is as resilient
as ever.