Black ESPN host, Steven A. Smith defended Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Martin O’Malley(D-MD) for saying “all lives matter” after he was booed by a crowd of Net Roots Nation members for saying: “All lives matter” in an awesome rant:

“Let me preface by comments by saying I am fully aware of the fact that no one white can say what I’m saying, but dammit, I’m gonna say it”

“I have to say this, I guess rhetorically… to my brothers and sisters, because I am a black man. Where’s the noise about all black lives matter when black folks are killing black folks? You see..that’s where you lose me.”

“So we mandate that they say:’Black lives matter'”but we got black folks dying at the hands of black folks and we’re not hearing that.

“Don’t get me started on the murders in Chicago, and to some degree throughout other parts of this country. I’m just sayin’… This is a sports show and I’m gonna get back to sports. But ain’t too many black men hosting a national radio show, and I just can’t let this slide. All lives do matter. Now ‘black lives matter’ resonates with us because of what we endured throughout our community. And I’m not saying that somebody shouldn’t say: ‘that ‘black lives matter.’ What I’m saying is, there’s nothing wrong with somebody highlighting that ‘All lives matter.’ That’s not a reason for somebody to be booed. It’s not a reason for a presidential candidate to have to apologize! Apologize?! Does anybody take a moment to realize how we look when we force someone to apologize for saying ‘All lives matter?’ Do you have any idea how this makes us look? Especially when black folks are getting killed by black folks every day. And that’s not to say that white folks ain’t killing white folks, cuz that happens too. But black folks are killing black folks every day and we never heard ‘black lives matter.’

So what are we saying? That black lives matter only when we’re killed by somebody who’s not black? C’mon now…c’mon now…

There’s a presidential election coming up in a little over a year Let’s keep our eye on the prize. Focus on the issues and stop allowing stuff like this to distract us.

All lives do matter…Black plus White, plus Hispanic, plus Asian plus Native Americans! All lives do matter!

If you want someone to emphasize that black lives do matter…fine, considering what we just went through. But don’t act like they need to apologize for saying: ‘All lives matter,’and then wonder why a nation rife with people who don’t happen to be black don’t appear care about enough about us! When we’re not only caring about them, but we’re not caring about ourselves enough to bring attention to that issue when we kill one another.

I apologize for having to spend that kind of time on that particular subject and veering away from the subject of sports, but dammit, it needed to be said!”

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