Sports columnist Jason Whitlock accused LeBron James of bigotry after the basketball star expressed outrage over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
“I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as black people in America,” James said after Monday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. “Black men, black women, black kids, we are terrified.”
Whitlock rebutted James’s remarks in an article titled “Whitlock: Lebron James Is A Bigot.”
“I’m black. I’m not scared. I’m not terrified. Neither is LeBron James. He’s lying,” Whitlock wrote Tuesday on his website Outkick. “He and the political activists controlling him want black people to immerse themselves in fear. Fear is a tool used to control people. If you comply with police instructions, there is virtually no chance of an American citizen being harmed by police.”
Blake, a black man, was shot multiple times after he reached into his SUV during his arrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the weekend. Blake is currently in stable condition in a hospital’s critical care unit and is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down.
The incident has sparked widespread protests in the city, some of which have deteriorated into arson, looting, and other rioting.
Black Lives Matter activists and supporters of racial justice argue in Blake’s case that officers used unnecessary force as they attempted to restrain him.
“If you’re sitting here and telling me that there was no way to [subdue] that gentleman or detain him or just before the firing of guns, then you’re sitting here lying to not only me, but you’re lying to every African American, every black person in the community,” James said.
Whitlock, a frequent critic of the Black Lives Matter movement and athletes who support it, pointed to a “second video and reports that police initially tried using a Taser on Blake.”
“LeBron James has more than 40 million followers on Twitter. Doesn’t he have a moral responsibility to be informed and measured before commenting on a controversy that could inspire civil unrest? What’s the harm in waiting 48 hours, 72 hours or a week?” Whitlock said. “LeBron James foolishly thinks he’s overseeing the police. He’s overseeing the black KKK. He’s promoting racism. He’s demonizing a group of white people based on the behavior of a few.”
Whitlock went on to accuse James of racism.
“As a black man that sort of racist tactic should be terrifying. That racist tactic was used to deny us freedom in this country. No one who professes to care about the welfare of black people would adopt the tactics of white bigots,” he said. “Bigots, regardless of color, have a common trait. Ignorance. Ignorance fuels their ego. Information is their enemy. They avoid it at all costs. Negative anecdotes frame their worldview.”
