All hail King James.
Four days before the Nov. 5 presidential election, His Highness — a.k.a. LeBron James, the legendary Los Angeles Lakers guard — dropped a video that blew up social media. In roughly 1 minute 15 seconds, and without appearing in a single frame, James made an eloquent, hard-hitting argument about why Donald Trump is an existential threat to Black America.
And he did it with Trump and his supporters’ own words.
In political terms, James — a four-time NBA champion and a Hall of Fame lock when he ends his astonishing, 21-year-career — is openly endorsing Kamala Harris, poised to become the first Black woman president.
Culturally speaking, however, the G.O.A.T., an influential Black man, is quietly arguing to the Black men who admire him — and who pundits say are drifting to Trump — why they shouldn’t vote for a man who has always been a racist and doesn’t even try to hide it anymore.
In just under 20 hours, the Instagram post has racked up nearly half a million likes.
In the professionally-produced video, Trump and his supporters’ racist statements are smash-cut with images of civil rights protests, news headlines, videos of Trump’s speeches, and the violence that links them both.
Trump says, “I’m not a racist;” the next image is a headline: “David Duke, KKK Support Donald Trump.” As a smirking Trump walks to a lectern, Trump supporters shout, “We love Hitler! We love Trump!”
Trump is heard supporting police, calling for a no-rules day of law-enforcement violence, and telling an audience he has no problem with racism. His statements: “It’s all about the genes, isn’t it?” “Ah, I love the old days,” ‘I’d like to punch him in the face.” “If he did that in a place like this, he’d be leaving here on a stretcher.”
The images flash by: black-and-white footage of civil rights protesters, then immigrants in color, both marching; authorities fire-hosing Black teenagers in the 1950s; a white man at a recent rally punching a Black man with dreads in the face; police dragging away John Lewis, then a young civil rights protester; another unidentified man hauled away, hog-tied.
The video closes with more audio of Trump — “Of course I hate these people. Let’s all hate these people. Maybe hate is what we need” — alongside powerful images of a flaming house, Mamie Till weeping over the open coffin of her son Emmitt, white people marching with confederate flags, and a Black man on his knees, crying, at a Black Lives Matter protest.
At the end of the video, a black screen with bold white type: HATE TAKES US BACK.
James put on an exclamation mark in the video’s caption.
“What are we even talking about here??” he wrote. “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!”
‘Nuff said. Long live The King.
