First Take is an interesting animal. It baits outrage, and often over the minor decontexualized quotes. (We have no idea, for instance, what RG3 was actually asked, or how the subject even came up.) The point is to get as close to the line as you can without crossing it. Parker didn't get the memo. He also didn't quite get his lines straight. Toward the end, you got the vague sense that Parker knew he was in trouble. There's that befuddled look on his face and the notion that braids can rescue you from the ranks of "cornball brothers," and the notion that having a "clean cut" (like Nas?) somehow makes you less black. The whole thing is ridiculous. But it's a kind of ridiculousness that will happen given First Take's formula.
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Rob Parker's comments about RGIII on ESPN's First Take

















