ESPN guest panelist J.A. Adande claimed Friday that the U.S. has no moral high ground to criticize China for its human rights abuses because of America's police shootings of unarmed citizens and Republican-led states' "assaults on voting rights," a reference to GOP-backed election integrity legislation.
During an episode of "Around the Horn," Adande was asked by host Tony Reali how he would reconcile enjoying the Beijing Olympics while the Chinese government commits genocide of the Uyghur Muslims. The Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony kicked off on Friday.
"I think it's standard in sports right now- you have to have a cognitive dissonance," Adande said. "You need to compartmentalize. We've never had a more enjoyable NFL Playoffs in this country and we've never had more people watching the playoffs, and yet it goes on amid the ongoing allegations against Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team, and, you know, the continuous concussion concerns, and now the concerns about diversity in the allegations and questions about competitive integrity even, all of that, and yet we're still enjoying the games."
"And who are we to criticize China's human rights records when we have ongoing attacks by the agents of the state against unarmed citizens and we've got assaults on the voting rights of our people of color in various states in this country," he continued. "So sports - I think it is possible and it's necessary more than ever to just shut everything out if you are to enjoy the actual games themselves."
.@jadande talks about reconciling watching the Beijing Winter Olympics amid China's human rights crisis pic.twitter.com/mqkOygjBXV
— Around The Horn (@AroundtheHorn) February 4, 2022
Reali then pressed Adande, asking him specifically how "sports can conquer" China being chosen to host the Olympics while also advocating against human rights abuses, prompting Adande to assert that it is difficult to find a country to host the games that does not have a poor history of upholding human rights.
"Well, again, where can you choose that's free?" Adande said. "And look at some of the other recent hosts of the games including Russia and some other recent places. It's very hard to find a country that isn't problematic when it comes to human rights, including here. I think we can bring attention to it. I think its notable that we did have a Uyghur participant lighting the torch and hopefully, this will be used to bring attention to it rather than to continue to place these issues in the dark."
An ESPN spokesperson told Fox News that Adande, who is a frequent panelist on "Around the Horn," has not been employed by the network since 2017, when he joined Northwestern University. Adande currently serves as the director of sports journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member