Facing down cancel culture: 4 courageous women who stand firm in their beliefs



When I was a child, I wanted to be so many things “when I grew up.” My choices ran the gamut of all the traditional options: police officer, professional football player, teacher, and doctor. News flash: I pursued none of those things.

Today, I now entertain the same conversations with my 10-year-old daughter. One day she wants to be a show director. Another day she wants to be a teacher. And another she wants to be a mom. Like my journey — and the journeys of most — the odds are that she will pursue a vocation yet to be mentioned (although I am rooting for the mom option somewhere along the way!).

Society provides some truly heroic women for our daughter to emulate.

Regardless, as her dad, I do not expend much effort worrying about what she chooses to do. Rather, I am most concerned with how she does it and whether she will exercise the values my wife and I are raising her to practice: courage, humility, hard work, honesty, generosity, empathy, selflessness, honor, and intellectual curiosity.

I often recycle the same advice my parents always gave me: Pick appropriate role models and emulate them. Unfortunately, the U.S. media is not interested in promoting women who exercise these values in the face of career consequences.

While her mom is the best example for her to follow, it is important to provide our daughter with examples from outside the home. Luckily, society provides some truly heroic women for her to emulate.

Michele Tafoya enjoyed as prestigious a career as anyone — male or female — in sports broadcasting. She holds a record four Emmys for sports reporting, and she was the only person nominated every year she was eligible. She worked five Super Bowls, and "Sunday Night Football" was the top-rated show during all 11 years of her tenure on it.

But in 2021, Tafoya used a guest-host appearance on “The View” to represent the beliefs of so many Americans who were silenced and canceled at that time. Amid her fellow hosts asking for talking points to be fed to their earpieces from their producer, Tafoya schooled them on critical race theory and race in America with the grace of a wide receiver and the power of a linebacker. At one point the crowd booed her, to which she responded, “Bring it on!”

Even before then, Tafoya knew she wanted to pursue something different. She had a lot to say, and she wanted a platform where she could share her conservative beliefs. So she told NBC the 2021 NFL season would be her last, and after 327 games from the sidelines, Super Bowl LVI would be her final big game.

For Tafoya, it had become less about the military veterans standing by her side for the national anthem and more about woke causes that did not align with her values. As she said at the time, “I couldn’t ignore that little voice any more after what we have all endured over the last four years.” Since then, she has been a champion of conservative causes across multiple networks and platforms, including her own podcast.

Thankfully, Tafoya has been a trailblazer for many women since. In 2022, Jennifer Sey, brand president for Levi’s and a 23-year veteran of the company, was ousted for her criticism of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. In her own admirable move, the married mother of four and sole breadwinner in her household turned down a $1 million pay package so that she could share her story with public. “I walked out the door with an uncertain future but a clear sense of purpose,” Sey said. You can’t put a price on that.

Sey is now leading a movement of bravery with her clothing company, XX-XY Athletics, the first athletic brand that has stood up for women’s sports. What a novel idea! “This is who I am,” Sey said. “This is what I believe. Deal with it.” Let’s hope her efforts give young women the encouragement to live their values now, in the beginnings of their promising careers.

Every day the list of women gets longer. After being sidelined for sharing her opinion on ESPN’s COVID vaccination policy, Sage Steele left the network after 16 years to “exercise her First Amendment rights more freely.” Not long after, Disney-owned ESPN fired one of its other female rock stars, Samantha Ponder, for voicing an opinion that 70% of the country supports: Biological men should not compete in women’s sports.

Much is said about the glass ceiling. These courageous women not only broke through it but also laid a new foundation for the women who have followed them. There are countless other stories like theirs out there.

I still listen to every career my daughter dreams of and give her the encouragement that she can be anything she wants to be if she puts in the hard work. In a society where it is popular to “do as I say, not as I do,” when it comes to these women, I will tell my daughter to do both.

Whitlock: Michele Tafoya risked everything to start her own Freedom Convoy



Michele Tafoya quit America’s No. 1 TV show to help a black man win the governor’s office in Minnesota. She’ll soon be castigated as racist, misguided, and stupid.

That’s the state of this country’s corporate and social media-led racial discourse. The cost of choosing the wrong political team is your public reputation. Tafoya’s new boss, Kendall Qualls, is a Republican. And despite his black skin, black wife, and black children, Qualls is just another black face of white supremacy.

And, wait for it, that makes Tafoya a Proud Girl and a potential insurrectionist.

Tafoya exited NBC’s “Football Night in America,” where she was the show’s sideline reporter for 11 years, so she could comfortably express her political views, co-chair Qualls’ bid for governor, and fight the leftists rolling back this nation’s racial progress.

“This has been on my mind,” Tafoya told Fox News host Tucker Carlson last night. “I’ve been waking up every day with a palpable pull at my gut. My middle-ground, moderate viewpoint is not being represented to the rest of the world. And so rather than, you know, just banging it out on Twitter or Instagram every day, I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something.’ I have benefited greatly from the American dream, and I feel like for the sake of my kids and because I so love this country, I’ve got to start giving back.”

We all do. Too many of us have taken the spoils of American exceptionalism for granted. We have failed to protect the progress won by Dr. Martin Luther King’s generation. We’ve ignored President Kennedy’s plea to ponder what we can do for our country.

We’re entitled. We assume the racial discord festering in our society will go away. It won’t. Racial division is the primary power-retention strategy of the Democratic Party, Big Tech, and media elites. Tafoya walked away from a seven-figure job to join the fight to save America. On his campaign webpage, Qualls attacks the way Minnesota politicians handled the George Floyd aftermath, the “defund the police” movement, and the left’s race-bait strategy.

“Americans are tired of being bullied by the left and exhausted by constant accusations of systemic racism. In fact, this is the least racist period in our country’s history. My parents and grandparents would have loved to have grown up in the America I grew up in. We are not going to be the generation that lost America. We are going to be the generation that saved it, restored it and passed it onto the next generation.”

Michele Tafoya’s bold move is one of the most courageous acts I’ve ever seen from a high-profile celebrity. Let me repeat: She quit America’s most popular TV show to join a fight that will put her in the crosshairs of a global political movement that annihilates the reputations of its adversaries.

“I don’t care if I’m attacked,” Tafoya told Tucker Carlson. “I really am not afraid of that, and I guess I feel like so many people now are afraid. Yeah. And I’m not. Listen, I know there are repercussions for whatever I choose to say. And I’ve talked to my kids’ school about it. You know, please don’t hold this against my kids. I’m speaking for me. I’m speaking for my family. But please don’t hold this against my kids.”

The attacks started last night. Without a hint of irony or self-awareness, former ESPN host Jemele Hill tweeted:

“Imagine leaving a high-profile job over a made-up issue. Does Michele Tafoya even know what CRT is? Does she have kids in school being taught CRT? Can she provide any examples?”

Imagine being so clueless that you (Hill) can’t recognize Tafoya tapped into the same energy, emotion, and feeling that caused you (Hill) to leave ESPN to join the Trump resistance.

Hill has no idea that many people — black and white — believe framing Trump as a Hitler-like racist is a “made-up issue.” Hill has never been much of a journalist, but Tafoya stated her CRT case during a controversial interview on “The View” a month or two ago, and she repeated her case on Tucker Carlson Wednesday night.

Tafoya has kids in school who are being segregated and driven away from each other based on racial differences.

“It breaks my heart that my kids are being taught that skin color matters,” Tafoya told Carlson.

In an exchange with Whoopi Goldberg, Tafoya shared this story.

“My son’s first best friend was a little African-American boy. They were inseparable. Get to a certain age, they start having what’s called an affinity group, which means you go for lunch and pizza with people who look like you. ... There is a big, big focus on the color of your skin. Why are we even teaching that the color of skin matters? Because to me, what matters is your character and your values.”

You do not have to agree with Tafoya’s point of view. But anyone with a modicum of intelligence and honesty can make sense of her rationale and acknowledge the courage of what she’s doing.

Jemele Hill called President Trump a racist. Her comment did not jeopardize her reputation. She didn’t say anything remotely original. She was mostly celebrated for saying it. She’s been offered jobs and speaking engagements for unleashing an ad hominem attack. Hill gets mean tweets for being a Trump critic.

Tafoya must worry about how her kids will be treated at school. There’s a huge difference between Hill and Tafoya. One is an opportunist. The other is a patriot. One wants to promote racial division. The other wants to promote racial progress.

Michele Tafoya is fearless. Her obvious courage will be ridiculed, her reputation smeared. She’s a one-woman freedom convoy. Are you man or woman enough to join her?

Michele Tafoya Endorses Federalist Contributor Kendall Qualls For Governor Of Minnesota

Closing the chapter on her sports broadcasting career, Tafoya announced she will co-chair Kendall Qualls' campaign for Minnesota governor.