There are nearly 5,000 sports columnists in this country and, of that number, only 22 are black. One of those elite 22, a 1991 graduate of Winston-Salem State University, returned to the campus last month to tell students about what it takes to reach the top. Stephen Smith is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and a sports analyst for ESPN. He can also be seen on Fox Sports as the network’s national NBA insider. His talk, sponsored by the Mass Communications club, attracted mostly new mass communications majors. “When I was a student, I played basketball, took 18 hours, had an internship at the Winston-Salem Journal, wrote for the campus newspaper, and I was a deejay for the campus radio station,” Smith told students. All this, he said, prepared him for the fast-paced, hard work that faces him today. “I’m concerned about how content you all are in your major,” Smith said and added that being “average” and “lazy” aren’t acceptable qualities in the real world. “There are [companies] looking for an excuse not to hire you, not for an excuse to hire you,” he said. As a columnist and analyst, Smith said, “That means, you have a license to your opinion; you have a license to express yourself.” According to Smith, Blacks make up less than one percent of the population of general columnists in the U.S. “What that means is America doesn’t want to hear what you think, what you feel; they don’t want you to express yourself.” Smith added, “What I see is that at any given moment, I can reach over 50 million people. To me, it’s scary as hell … it’s pressure.” Smith explained that conformity in this world is a must. He recounted an experience in which a television network asked him to tone down his demonstrative, open image in order to relate more to his predominantly [white] audience. Smith followed his boss’ instructions: “Everybody has to conform – blacks, whites, Hispanics – everybody.” He continued and said, “Any corporation that hires you, rightly or falsely, considers you to be an extent of their company and themselves.” Before Smith opened the discussion for questions, he pointed out, “You cannot just be whatever you want to be.” Smith continued. “Here’s the trick … find out what your gift is … go do it … discover if you love it or not … then you can be all that you want to be.”