On Wednesday afternoon, LeBron James took to Twitter to attack Kyle Rittenhouse’s emotional testimony, insinuating that he was a liar and a faker. James quoted a tweet about the story, stating, “What tears????? I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court.”
James’s ridicule falls in line with much of the scorn coming from the country’s celebrities and elites. And his social media behavior reveals a disturbing pattern that goes beyond antipathy toward Rittenhouse.
It seems whenever James is criticizing people on Twitter, his targets have largely one thing in common. Whether it was President Donald Trump, NBA executive Daryl Morey, a courtside fan at an NBA game, police officers, or Rittenhouse, the target is always white people. Moreover, it is the inflammatory rhetoric that accompanies much of these scathing criticisms that should raise concerns. James has an established track record of disparaging remarks solely about those who are white.
Consider James’s previous comments about NFL owners — white NFL owners. James specifically highlighted the race of NFL owners in a negative manner, using the bigoted trope of comparing them to slave owners. On his HBO series The Shop, he referred to NFL owners as a “bunch of old white men” and said they have a “slave mentality.”
“In the NFL, they got a bunch of old white men owning teams, and they got a slave mentality,” James said. “And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the f*** I tell ya’ll to do. Or we get rid of y’all.”
James then continued his racist trope by insinuating that the NFL is only popular because of black players, even though the league is 25% white and among the white players are some of the most famous and marketable in the league.
“The players are who make the ship go,” he said. “We make it go. Every Sunday, without Todd Gurley and without Odell Beckham Jr., without those players, those guys, there is no football.”
Additionally, on The Shop, James previously declared his disdain for white people. At various points on his show, he said that he had to “learn how to trust white people,” and “he wanted nothing to do with white people.” We all know what the reaction would have been had a white athlete made similar statements about black people.
James’s celebrity gives him a platform. He often uses this platform to spread misinformation and divisiveness. Overwhelmingly, the targets of these attacks are almost always white people. Rittenhouse is just the latest victim of James’s anti-white wrath.
