FS1 czar Jamie Horowitz wants his "Opinionists" to be fearless.
Horowitz sure got what he wanted on Wednesday's "Undisputed," when co-host Shannon Sharpe called out FS1 colleague Joel Klatt — and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — for their white privilege.
MORE: Skip Bayless rips Trent Dilfer for 'plantation mentality'
Klatt, FS1's top college football game analyst, was booked as a guest. But he may have bit off more than he could chew when he sat down at the debate desk to talk about Colin Kaepernick's protest of the American flag and national anthem.
Klatt said that — as the proud son of Marine combat veteran in Viet Nam — he felt personally "frustrated" by 49ers QB's "disrespectful" protest. As well as the police-as-pigs socks Kaepernick wore on the practice field.
But he noted his views were evolving and that he liked the way the Seahawks handled the situation.
A fired-up Sharpe countered that's because Klatt views Kaepernick's protest through the lens of a privileged white male instead of an African-American like himself.
White men like Klatt and Jones would never trade places with black males, Sharpe told Klatt:
"You also view it through the lens of being a white male that has never had to have an amendment, an act, or a constitution amended for your civil rights…You’ve never had to say, 'You know what, you can’t go Joel Klatt to this place because you’re a white male.' You’ve never had that…Everybody talks about, 'Well Shannon, you’ve got it so good.' I tell you what: I bet Jerry Jones would not trade places with a 75-year black man in Chicago. I bet Joel Klatt would not trade places with a 30-year old black guy from Chicago or Watts. I bet he wouldn’t do that. You know why? It’s great to know that I’m white and a male in America. I’m viewed totally different than any other demographic in America. That’s fact. That’s not fiction. That’s not a prism. That is factual."
MORE: Jones not happy with national anthem protests
Klatt seemed taken aback.
When he replied he can't help who he is, what he is and how he feels as the son of a military veteran, Sharpe challenged him again as co-host Skip Bayless and moderator Joy Taylor looked on:
"How many times did you and your friends have a conversation, before Colin Kaepernick did what he did, about police brutality and about the inequities in America. How many times did you and your friends, you’re sitting around, you’re playing golf, say, 'You know what, that’s wrong what happened in New York, that’s wrong what happened in Chicago, that’s wrong what happened in Missouri...How many times did ya’ll have that conversation?"
Klatt admitted he's "never" had that conversation with his "non-African-American" friends. But he said he discussed it with his African-American on-air partner, Gus Johnson, last year.
Here's the full clip which FS1 is calling an "open and honest conversation about race" on its YouTube page.
The whole thing is worth watching. But things really got going around the 4:00 minute mark.
At the end of the conversation, the two fist-bumped.
The segment drew a strong reaction reaction on social media:
@joelklatt thought you, @ShannonSharpe and @RealSkipBayless had one of the best conversations I've seen on this topic. #Respect
— El Cristobál (@_NameMeKing) September 15, 2016
