Jason Whitlock created quite a stir in recent days when, in response to a racially-motivated vandalism incident at LeBron James’ Los Angeles home, the FS1 personality claimed that the three-time champ had merely been “inconvenienced” because he believes his considerable wealth should render him immune to such hatred.
LeBron’s teammates and other athletes were quick to decry Whitlock’s dismissive comments, and now, one of his own colleagues, Mike Hill, has taken to Twitter to rake him over the coals for his wildly-misguided assessment of the situation.
For him to even suggest that because LeBron is rich shields him from racism is preposterous & just plain dumb. https://t.co/uyDhIURrbH
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) June 1, 2017
I'd say Jason's rhetoric is way more damaging than anything LeBron said yesterday. Once again, same network, FAR DIFFERENT views. Smh https://t.co/uyDhIURrbH
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) June 1, 2017
When you're saying stuff jst for the shock value or think it's going to bring attention 2u, you're jst a media whore. Selling it 4 attention
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) June 1, 2017
Well, @WhitlockJason has a right to his opinion, so I have a right to say this opinion of his is dumb & reckless as hell. https://t.co/uyDhIURrbH
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) June 1, 2017
Racism, against blacks, Jews, Asians, whites etc has no tax bracket or cares about your popularity. In fact, in some cases it incites it. https://t.co/uyDhIURrbH
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) June 1, 2017
Whitlock initially took umbrage with LeBron’s allusion to Emmett Till, a black teenager who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955, saying in exasperation that the circumstances were categorically different. But Whitlock was conveniently ignoring LeBron’s larger points that it’s important to bring these incidences to public attention and that, no matter what your status, it’s still frightening to be a black man in America.
Whitlock has manufactured an entire career on making outrageous comments, but just about everyone agrees that his views on this scenario terribly-misguided at best, and at worst, downright reckless. It remains to be seen whether his employers at Fox Sports will be moved to take some kind of action against him.
