Skip Bayless has never shied away from racial dialogue, whether it was during his time as a columnist, alongside Stephen A. Smith on First Take, or now with Shannon Sharpe on their FS1 show Undisputed.
The dialogue is productive, but some of Bayless’ comments have also been viewed as race-baiting. In 2012, Bayless was notably angry at the Washington Redskins for drafting quarterback Kirk Cousins a few rounds behind Robert Griffin III. Bayless noted “the majority of Redskins fans are white and it’s just human nature if you’re white to root for the white guy. It just happens in sports. Just like the black community will root for the black quarterback.”
Race has been an important topic on Undisputed and other sports shows nationwide in recent weeks. Wednesday morning, Bayless discussed his background, which might not fit the pretense of a 68-year old white man from Oklahoma City with a mild southern drawl.
Bayless previously discussed his difficult upbringing, describing his father as an abusive alcoholic and a self-absorbed mother who also battled alcoholism. A majority of Bayless’ childhood was spent at his grandmother’s home, who employed a black woman named Katie Bell Henderson.
According to Bayless, it was Ms. Henderson who essentially raised him. Henderson, whose grandparents were slaves, was raised in Alabama and later attended high school on the South Side of Chicago.
“She was tough and she was smart and she became my mother,” Bayless told Sharpe. “Everything I learned about right and wrong, black and white, I learned from Katie Bell.”
Bayless said his grandmother traveled for work, so Henderson was hired to run her household in Oklahoma City, an area which was still segregated.
“Katie Bell would even go so far as to take me occasionally to her AME church, where I was the only white face in an all-Black congregation. And they treated me with nothing but love.”
“My hellish existence in my house turned into a silver lining because this was rare, what white kid could get that kind of education?” Bayless added. “I’m not just with Katie Bell, she’s my authority figure…I’m going to do nothing but respect her because she proved right away she knew way more than my mother did.”
“It was natural to me, it was second nature to me,” Bayless said about his tendency to discuss race in person, print, radio and television. “I grew up that way, I was taught it from a woman who lived it.”
