Los Angeles Lakers superstar
LeBron James isn’t going to just shut and dribble. He has made that quite clear. But, following the “backlash” one of his tweets has garnered, he quickly deleted it.
Our elation of George Floyd’s murderer as one of the rare instances a police officer finally being held accountable for his actions was short-lived as news of another fatal police shooting on Tuesday (Apr.20) quickly began to circulate just minutes after
Chauvin’s guilty verdict was announced. It was made immediately clear that the fight for social justice and police reform is far from over as details surrounding the tragic shooting of a 16-year-old Black girl named
Ma’Khia Bryant by a white police officer in Columbus, Ohio, made its rounds.
On Wednesday (Apr.21), James posted and later deleted a tweet about the fatal shooting sharing a photo of officer Nicholas Reardon along with the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY,” and the hourglass emoji. WE knew what James meant by the tweet, but as expected, those on the right and folks looking for any chance to criticize the vocal NBA superstar used it as their moment to accuse him of “targeting” the police officer.
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James explained in a series of tweets his decision to delete the tweet writing “I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer.” He added in a follow-up tweet, “
ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!”
Following his tweet, Conservative blowhards like Candace Owens immediately called for James to be “stripped of his sponsorships.”
Coon Colonel Jason Whitlock wasted no time hopping on Twitter with his struggle flat top to admonish James, writing, “
LeBron James, like other elites, is using racial division as a distraction as elites reshape America to be more like communist China. Elites prefer communism. Millionaire elites are protected by communism. They’re the “Talented Tenth” W.E.B. Du Bois promoted. You’re being played.”
https://twitter.com/WhitlockJason/status/1384977986257137666?s=20
The National Fraternal Order of Police said James should “educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The officer saved a young girl’s life.”
Of course, there were plenty of tweets supporting James as well.
https://twitter.com/StarrburyMike/status/1385242668255436807?s=20
Regardless, another young Black life has been taken, now a new fight for justice for Ma’Khia Bryant has begun. You can peep more reactions to James’ tweet and, of course, Jason Whitlock being clowned in the gallery below.
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Photo: Jacob Kupferman / Getty
