We all know Jemele Hill because of her sports acumen and coverage for ESPN and other outlets throughout the years. However, if you know anything about Hill’s body of work, you know she’ll never be silenced and won’t just stick to sports.
On Tuesday, while the world gawked at another Billionaire strapping into a rocket and blasting off into space, Hill called out everyone in sight.
First, she’s “bothered” by the media outlets covering these space missions.
“The breathless way the media is pandering to the asinine fantasies of billionaires and largely shying away from serious and real questions that need to be asked. It’s the absurd flaunting of wealth and how (Richard) Branson and other billionaires are able to do (stuff) like have an elaborate fan boy space camp because they are masters of exploitation.”
Next on her list, the men behind these zero-gravity trips.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic, a climate crisis, a racism crisis, the end of Democracy but according to Branson, being able to travel to space to going to make everything all better,” she said on the ‘Jemele Hill is Unbothered’ Podcast.
Hill’s commentary is complete with audio of Branson claiming that some day soon everyone will have equal access to space.
“What i’m trying to figure out is how space travel is going to be equitable,” she responded. “Branson is charging between 200 and $250,000 to reserve a ticket on his next flight. Meanwhile his buddy Elon Musk reportedly wants to charge people $55 million per passenger to journey to the international space station. And (Jeff) Bezos, he wants to charge just a mere $28 million per passenger for a space mission.
“Branson wants us to believe that if we just give it a few years, a ticket to Mars is going to be like a Delta flight to San Antonio.”
She then calls out Branson for using over $200 million of tax payer money to fund his space program and furloughing employees for eight weeks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“He got space money, though,” she added.
