ESPN's Samantha Steele Gets Accidentally Racist at Spelling Bee

Samantha Steele was looking at a 3-0 pitch down the plate in the form of an introduction of Scripps Spelling Bee champion Snigdha Nandipati. She was given the green light to introduce her as the winner, and ended up whiffing in glorious fashion. 

Let's set up a moment that capped off a brilliant night of spelling and, well, misspelling. 

Samantha Steele is all set to introduce the winner of the night, Snigdha Nandipati from San Diego. The young girl spelled "guetapens" to beat out Stuti Mishra of West Melbourne, Florida. 

Unfortunately for Steele, both girls were on the stage together for the presentation. Here is that moment captured with the glorious brilliance of a shaky camera. 

D'oh!

She meant one Indian-American girl instead of another. I smell that Twitter machine rolling along ready to pick this moment up, marinate on it and spew it out with an ugly tint. 

I came across the following tweet thanks to Awful Announcing, which included the subsequent explanation from Steele. First, a tweet from Jamal Khan.

"

Thanks for that @Samantha_Steele , all brown people do look the same.

— Jamal Khan (@bismarchiavelli) June 1, 2012"

And then a reply from Steele.

"

@bismarchiavelli I didn't even see her, just assumed when I turned the winner would be next to me. I knew it wasnt her when I saw her.

— Samantha Steele (@Samantha_Steele) June 1, 2012"

Easy peasy lemon squeasy. Let's chill on the name calling, because Samantha Steele merely blundered and whiffed on the chance at a pristine moment. 

It's the equivalent of an awkward little faux pas, far from the socially unacceptable practice known as racism. Consider it a brain fart placed on live air. 

As you can see, she accidentally fumbled and bumbled her way into alleged racism, something that is a very real thing that I never considered existed. 

You have to be careful on air because a complete lack of awareness can be construed for something it's not. 

Funny, thinking that a gaffe on the stage of a Spelling Bee could have been salvaged by merely reading the names hanging around the kids necks. 

Was this racist? No. 

From Steele:

"

I know both girls. My mistake was not making sure they were in the right positions b4 I turned from the CEO. I apologize! Congrats Snigdha!

— Samantha Steele (@Samantha_Steele) June 1, 2012"

It was merely awkward, uncomfortable and viral video worthy. Move along, because there is nothing more to see here. 

Follow me on Twitter and we can have a funky good time. 

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