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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Entertainment
Thomas Neumann

Mina Kimes Crushes Jason Whitlock After Ridiculous Take on Racial Slur

ESPN analyst Mina Kimes found herself at the center of attention on social media Wednesday after a Boston radio host made an inappropriate remark about her.

During a segment on The Greg Hill Show on WEEI-FM, Chris Curtis invoked Kimes’s name during a discussion about a proposal to ban mini liquor bottles in Boston. Cohost Courtney Cox asked her peers to rank their top five nips, which is a nickname for the tiny bottles. However, the word “nip” also carries a pejorative connotation toward people of Japanese descent.

As the show’s personalities were naming brands of booze, Curtis interjected, “Uh, I’d probably go Mina Kimes.”

ESPN issued a statement denouncing the comment about Kimes, who is of Korean descent, later Wednesday. Curtis apologized for the comment Thursday and was handed a week-long suspension.

But before Curtis apologized, a spokesperson from WEEI’s parent company, Audacy, told Chad Finn of The Boston Globe that Curtis meant to invoke the name of actress Mila Kunis, not Kimes. That seemed to imply a joke based on sexism, as opposed to racism.

Kimes appeared to take the high road by avoiding a direct comment on the situation and instead humorously changed her Twitter avatar to a photo of Kunis.

That’s where Whitlock, a Blaze Media personality who was twice employed by ESPN, joined the fray. On Wednesday evening, presumably reacting to the revised avatar, Whitlock opined on Twitter that Kimes had made herself a victim in the situation.

“Raise your hand if you knew ’Nip’ was an ethnic slur? I did not. Tell me how Mina Kimes’ life was impacted by this?” Whitlock wrote. “Other than nailing herself to a cross, I don’t see the damage. She will dance to rap music calling black people N-words repeatedly without uttering a complaint.”

Kimes responded to Whitlock’s criticism Thursday afternoon with a not-so-subtle dig at the longtime sportswriter.

“Nailing myself to a cross?” Kimes wrote in a quote tweet. “I made one joke and went back to work…because unlike you, I still talk about sports for a living. Have a great day.”

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