Mina Kimes Fires Back at Jason Whitlock’s Racial Comments on Twitter

ESPN analyst Mina Kimes recently found herself at the center of a social media firestorm when a Boston radio host made an inappropriate remark about her during a segment on WEEI-FM. While discussing a proposal to ban mini liquor bottles in Boston, co-host Courtney Cox asked her peers to rank their top five “nips,” a term for tiny liquor bottles. However, the term “nip” also carries a derogatory connotation toward people of Japanese descent.

During the segment, Chris Curtis, one of the show’s personalities, interjected, “Uh, I’d probably go Mina Kimes.” After that video of this segment went viral on Twitter.

ESPN issued a statement denouncing the comment, and Curtis was suspended for a week.

Before Curtis apologized, a spokesperson for the radio station’s parent company claimed that Curtis meant to invoke the name of actress Mila Kunis, not Kimes, which seemed to imply a sexist joke rather than a racist one. However, Kimes, who is of Korean descent, seemed to take the high road by avoiding direct comment on the situation and instead changed her Twitter avatar to a photo of Kunis.

Enter Jason Whitlock, a Blaze Media personality and former ESPN employee. Whitlock took to Twitter and opined that Kimes had made herself a victim in the situation. He also questioned whether Kimes knew that “nip” was an ethnic slur and suggested that she had no right to be upset about the comment because she “will dance to rap music calling black people N-words repeatedly without uttering a complaint.”

Kimes responded to Whitlock’s criticism with a not-so-subtle dig, stating that she made one joke and then went back to work, unlike Whitlock, who no longer talks about sports for a living.

Overall, it’s clear that Kimes handled the situation with grace and humor, while Whitlock’s comments only served to expose his ignorance and insensitivity.

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