Joy Taylor is a well-established voice in sports media, but she faced a difficult road to become a fixture in the business.
Taylor, who is one of the analysts on Fox Sports 1's "Speak," appeared on an episode of Dan Le Batard's "South Beach Sessions" on Nov. 3 where she shared the difficulties she experienced trying to make it in the sports media space particularly as a Black woman.
"I knew other people weren't getting what I was getting, because you could see what other people are getting," Taylor told Le Batard. "The internet is an awful place just stewing of b***s*** nonsense and volatility. But there's an extra special sauce for women and there's an extra special sauce for Black women of color. And then there's an extra special sauce for that when you will have the audacity to have an opinion and then have the opinion about sports."
She said that growing up in sports radio taught her how to deal with the slew of criticism, and that once X (formerly Twitter) became a space in which people would hate on her, she already built the tolerance to withstand it.
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"For a long time, if people follow me on social, this was sort of a bit of my personality on the internet was to just fire back," Taylor said. "Now I really don't read it. I do not consume — I mean that app has become essentially useless for any kind of real conversation whatsoever — but I just don't consume any of the feedback. And we're not meant to get this much feedback as humans in my opinion, good or bad."
Taylor elaborated by saying that in order to dismiss the hate from online sources, it was important for her to learn to also not take the positive feedback from the internet.
"I wasn't going to allow this anonymous feedback to hurt me because I can't allow that anonymous feedback to make me feel good either," Taylor said. "When you rely on the internet or the comments of strangers to move you positively or negatively, it's more likely going to move negatively more often."
When it comes to working as a Black woman and an opinion-leader in sports media — which she distinguished as different from a reporter or host — she said she's needed to prove herself throughout every step of her career because of the lack of representation in those roles.
"How do you convince someone to give you an opportunity that they don't see already existing? So it's a constant battle of affirming that not only do you belong in that space, you have the credentials to be in that space," Taylor said.
Taylor noted that there are very few Black women who have found success in the space, and that there is very little room for error for women at all to provide opinion because any mistake would douse their credibility faster than for most men.
She credited former ESPN host Jemele Hill for being the first of the Black female voices in sports media that was a opinion provider.
"The representation, I didn't really see it was until Jemele [Hill.] That was when I was like, 'Oh, that's actually possible.' She is being heard. She's giving her opinion. She's a Black woman right alongside all the men in the equal space, not as a host or moderators or some sort of role on the show," Taylor said.
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Taylor said she couldn't think of any major specifics off the top of her head of instances that made it difficult, but mentioned that there a lot of microaggressions that happen on a daily basis.
"I think mostly just the experience that day to day experiences are the ones that can build up to the biggest frustration. It's the not being invited to a certain dinner or events but all of the men are invited or having some extra critique because of what you were wearing that the men would never get or experience," Taylor said.
She said it has been "lonely" to grow in this space as a Black woman trying to make it big, but that she's formed a great support group with other women in media. She admitted that there are difficulties for both men and women, but that there are certain things specific to women that has made having a group of women essential.
"There are experiences that men cannot relate to and in many various ways — not just trying to break into a space, because there's there's competition for that that crosses over from men and women as well — but our unique experiences require a certain sensitivity to understand and empathize with," Taylor said.
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