UP Hill
I just finished reading Jemele Hill’s brutally honest and unusually revealing memoir. Jemele Hill is a former Sports Journalist who worked for ESPN, various News Papers, and Sports talk shows. She spoke her mind but also knew her sports as well as many other culturally relevant things. She was suspended from ESPN several times, most notably for expressing her opinions about former President Trump, particularly following his halfhearted and insincere condemnation of the incidents in Charlottesville, VA in 2017. She now writes for one of my favorite magazines (I have an online subscription) “The Atlantic”, which is known for current topics and foreign affairs.
Her book is titled UP Hill: A Memoir. It details her life as a kid from the inner city of Detroit and at times in Houston, Texas. She has a very unique family with a well-read Grandmother who graduated from college and a mother who was addicted to drugs and at times a prostitute. She was raised by her single mother, but both of her parents were at various times addicted to drugs. Although her mother was addicted to crack, she did everything to make sure her daughter would not do the same. Her mother showed her what crack looked like, and said, “Do not do this ever!”
There is one section in the book where she speaks about keeping a journal. In that journal, she would write down some secret thoughts about her mother, and some of it was not very good. While in the 8th grade and being tired of her mother coming home high and many other things, she wrote in her Diary something to the effect, “She better be happy she is bigger than me, or else I would drop-kick her ass!”
She came home one day and saw her mother sitting with the journal in her hand. As soon as her mother saw her, she started pummeling her and at one point grabbed a fake fire log about to hit her with it. Jemele was able to escape but her mother came after her but did not catch up. At one point Jemele returned to the house and saw a black trash bag filled with her clothes. Her mother was kicking her out, or at the very least taking her to her father who had no place to keep her. They eventually reconciled of course and continued with their many battles.
Jemele opening speaks about her relationships and was very open about an abortion she had herself. She also writes about why she came to that decision. In today’s climate it is risking revealing such a thing, but Jemele is just being brutally honest. She also speaks about her various boyfriends and finally about her current husband. One comes away with fact that Jemele is real and is speaking about real things.
Jemele was gifted in high school and a go-getter. She took advantage of many after-hours and summer programs, particularly in the field of Journalism, and eventually won a Scholarship at Michigan State.
At current times, Jemele and her mother seem to have reconciled and recently appeared on the Jada Pinkett-Smith show sharing their story.
As stated earlier, this story is brutally honest, but I highly recommend it because it is also inspirational. It shows how a young kid from her background would one day work at ESPN, Sports Journalism, Esteemed Magazine, but most importantly become a voice for the unspoken, so much so that she would earn the ire of a sitting President, who saw her as treat to his hidden lack of esteem.
She sometimes wore her emotions on her sleeves, but she never backed down!
Reading this book was educational and well worth my time.
Jerome Pearson.