The public persona of LeBron James is one of a socially conscious, brave leader who speaks against injustice. The reality is that he pushes detestable, repulsive political talking points and uses his platform to defend genocide and spread racial hatred.
LeBron most recently decided to tweet a (now-deleted) picture of the Columbus police officer who killed Ma’Khia Bryant, with the caption “YOU’RE NEXT,” calling for “accountability.”
LeBron deleted it pic.twitter.com/iJil2ohGkn
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 21, 2021
To be clear, LeBron is upset that a white police officer saved the life of a black woman whom the knife-wielding Bryant was about to stab. Bryant had ignored the officer’s order to get down and instead charged at the other woman with a knife before the officer opened fire. The officer’s big crime was being white and doing his job, using lethal force to prevent a murder.
LeBron doesn’t get to claim ignorance on issues like this. After all, he stated that he “does his homework” and that he speaks from “a very educated mind.” He has also claimed that he will “never shut up about things that’s wrong,” even though he routinely defends China’s genocidal regime when the issue, near and dear to the NBA’s pocketbook, arises.
James is confident in the morality of his position, which, in this case, involves claiming that a police officer was wrong to prevent a brutal stabbing almost in progress.
This isn’t a first for James. Even after it was clear that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife when he was shot by police, LeBron expressed disappointment that the officers weren’t charged for defending themselves. He also claimed that supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong made you “misinformed or not really educated.”
If LeBron really knows what he’s talking about, as he claims, then he is knowingly stoking racially infused hatred against a police officer who, by all appearances, did nothing wrong, all the while supporting the destruction of democracy in Hong Kong and making excuses for the regime that is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Please, no one bring up his or the NBA’s financial ties to China.
Every time he ignores or even defends China’s authoritarianism, he is showing that his own self-interest is more important than the most basic human rights. LeBron wants to be treated seriously as a political and social leader, but his record so far evinces moral bankruptcy.
