The Washington Post released a photo from 1957, in which Dallas Cowboys Owner, Jerry Jones was photographed outside North Little Rock High School, standing in the crowd of white students, blocking several black students from entering the building. The picture and event occurred 65 years ago when Jerry Jones was 14 years old. Scenes like that were watershed moments in the history of race relations in America, and it appears that Jerry Jones may have been on the wrong side of history in that picture. So, questions about his presence at that incident need to be asked and answered. People can and do change over the course of 65 years, especially from their youth into their adult life. Most people are completely different human beings as adults as they were as adolescents. But Jerry Jones still needs to account for his presence at that event.
LeBron James tried to inject himself into this controversy, as he does with every racially charged situation when he asked a room filled with reporters, “I was wondering why I haven’t gotten a question from you guys about the Jerry Jones photo. But when the Kyrie [Irving] thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.” James tried to expose the media’s racism due to the fact that they asked him about Kyrie Irving’s antisemitic comments but did not ask him about Jerry Jones’ picture. He believes that white people are treated less severely than black people when it comes to acts of racism. Obviously, the media asked James about Kyrie Irving because Irving is one of the best players in the league in which LeBron is also one of the best players. James and Irving had been teammates in Cleveland for a number of years. The penalties imposed on Irving have a direct impact on LeBron James career in the NBA. There are natural and obvious connections. Was LeBron James asked about the antisemitic comments that DeSean Jackson posted on social media in 2020? No. DeSean Jackson plays in the NFL. Kyrie Irving and LeBron James play in the NBA.
The question I would like to ask LeBron James is, why are you so interested in commenting on what Jerry Jones did during a racially charged incident 65 years ago when he was 14 years old but are completely non-curious about Joe Biden – the President that he endorsed and voted for – eulogizing Democrat Senator, Robert Byrd, a former Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan. Biden eulogized Byrd 12 years ago, in 2010, when Biden was 68 years old, not 65 years ago when he was 14 years old. Why would LeBron James, as a black man, vote for someone who praised a leader of the Ku Klux Klan? Jerry Jones is a private citizen whereas, Joe Biden is the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the free world. And this is not exclusive to Joe Biden. Bill and Hillary Clinton were heavily tied to Robert Byrd as well. Hillary Clinton, who LeBron James also endorsed for President in 2016, called Robert Byrd “a friend and mentor”.
Why didn’t social justice activists like LeBron James ask Joe Biden why he led the “high-tech lynching” of black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings in 1991? Why was this powerful white Senator trying to keep a qualified black man down with trumped up charges of sexual harassment – the same type of accusations that led to the killing of Emmett Till? Why has LeBron James shown zero interest asking questions about Biden’s overt racism while holding public office, but instead has he supported this powerful white man who continually tried to keep a qualified black man down for President.
The bigger and most pressing questions are, why are Democrats continually let off the hook for their racism, while Republicans are held accountable for racism that they did not commit? Why do black people continually vote over 90% for the Democrat party, which was the party of slavery, the party of segregation, the party of Jim Crow, the party that founded the Ku Klux Klan, and is the party that continually views people based primarily on the color of their skin? Maybe the reason why so many black people vote for Democrats is that the Democrat party’s racism now is an anti-white racism, but they fail to understand that the Democrats’ anti-white racism is grounded in the Democrats’ “soft bigotry of low expectations” of the black race which continually keeps black people down.
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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.