For Some Reason, The Blaze Published a Photoshopped Image of LeBron as a Klansman on a Jason Whitlock Article
The Blaze/Getty Images
The Blaze published an article by Jason Whitlock on Thursday and for some reason the accompanying image featured LeBron James dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In a screed on the conservative website against the Lakers superstar, Whitlock asserted – without evidence – that a 2017 incident in which the n-word was spray-painted on the gate leading to James’ mansion in Brentwood, California was a “hoax.”
James responded to that episode by lamenting the history of racism in the United States and invoked Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black child who was lynched in Mississippi after allegedly offending a White woman in 1955.
Whitlock recounted the case of 17-year-old White teenager Ethan Liming, who died earlier this month after being beaten to death by three Black men, according to police.
It has been reported that Liming was in a car with friends as the group shot a water gun at unsuspecting passersby. Eventually the group arrived at James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, where the three men were on a basketball court. The group fired the water gun at them, which appears to have provoked a fight that proved fatal for Liming. Reportedly, the suspects delayed the ability of Liming’s friends to take him to a hospital.
“Our condolences goes out to the family who lost a loved one!!” James tweeted about Liming’s death. “My the heavens above watch over you during this tragedy! Pray for our community!”
Here is how Whitlock reacted to James’ response:
His heartfelt, grammatically challenged tweet included heart and crown emojis. There was no mention of Emmett or Mamie Till. No mention of racial hatred.
Five black kids got in a fight, and the white kid who initially acted as peacemaker got killed. What would LeBron tweet if a black child was brutally beaten by three white men at I Promise School?
Later in the article, Whitlock called James a “stereotypical bigot” and reiterated his claim about the spray-painted n-word on James’ property being a hoax. He also invoked the historical association of the Democratic Party and the KKK (which largely stopped being a thing after the pro-Civil Rights faction of the Democratic Party prevailed in the 1960s):
LeBron has smoke for everyone white he believes wrongly takes a life. He has nothing substantive to say when black people take lives. LeBron James is a stereotypical bigot. Racial bigotry, of any stripe, is rooted in lust for power. The KKK terrorized black and white people who failed to support the racist policies of the Democratic Party. That’s not an opinion. It’s a historical fact.
LeBron is a political soldier for the Democratic Party. His bigotry is rooted in lust for political power. Democrats have painted their political opponents as bigots. It’s LeBron’s job to promote that narrative. He pounces on every high-profile opportunity, and he’s not above going the Jussie Smollett route and creating faux hate crime.
Whitlock claimed James “will never address the family dysfunction and chaos that leads far too many black boys and men to settle conflict with deadly violence.”
He then called the Democratic National Committee (the DNC), “the Dead Negroes Confederacy” and stated the DNC “loves dead negroes.”
It is unclear who decided to affix the image in question to the article. Oftentimes, that is an editor’s decision and not a writer’s. What is clear, however, is that for some reason, The Blaze published a photoshopped image of LeBron James as a Klansman.
Archived version of Whitlock’s article
