Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James looks on during the college basketball game between the Long Beach State 49ers and the USC Trojans on December 10, 2023, at Galen Center in Los Angeles. | Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty
Apparently, there’s a video floating around online that shows LeBron James entering an arena while the national anthem was playing and sitting down instead of observing it.
And since nothing reveals conservative snowflake-dom like a Black athlete doing literally anything but standing at attention while MAGA America’s favorite sing-along is being performed, UFC fighter Colby Covington got his tighty-righty-whities all in a bunch and attacked James, which he has done numerous times despite James not showing any indication that he even remotely gives a damn what the Trump-humping MAGA fighter thinks.
A reporter recently asked Covington about the video of James committing the crime of—*checks notes*—sitting quietly during the anthem and disturbing no one but silly people who are allergic to minding their own business, and Covington responded by saying this:
“If you hate America so much and you don’t like this country that gave you a billion dollars, leave it or come deal with me.”
“You go to China, go to these sweat shops that you employ all these laborers and use these women and pay ’em pennies on the dollar to make your millions.”
“F*** you LeBron James. You’re a coward. You’re a spineless coward, and you’re a b*tch.”
Colby Covington has a message for LeBron James.
"F*ck Lebron James"
— Clown World (@ClownWorld_) December 13, 2023
First off, here’s what I’ve always found interesting about the national anthem controversy (that mostly exists in the minds of overly sensitive white people who pretend it’s everyone else who is overly sensitive): When ex-NFL star Colin Kaepernick kicked off the trend of kneeling during the anthem, it actually didn’t start with the kneeling. It started with him sitting.
Like LeBron, Kaepernick wasn’t disruptive. It’s not like he hopped up on a table, kicked over a Gatorade cooler and started rapping the lyrics to NWA’s “F*ck Tha Police” at the top of his lungs while the anthem was playing. All he did was quietly remain seated. It wasn’t until he was asked by a reporter why he wasn’t among the tens of thousands of people in the stadium who were standing during the anthem that he said it was in protest of injustices committed against Black people in America. If that interview never happened, it wouldn’t have been a massive story, the kneeling trend may never have become a thing, and conservative white people across the country wouldn’t still be losing their minds every time other athletes kneel in solidarity. In other words: White sports fans’ undoing was their own inability to stand for the anthem and let everyone else do whatever they wanted as if this were a—*checks notes*—free country.
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers points to the sky following the national anthem before the start of a game against the Sacramento Kings at The Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 13, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. | Source: Kevin C. Cox / Getty
Another interesting thing: Whenever Black athletes speak about anti-Black oppression in America, white people’s knee-jerk reaction is to tell them they should “shut up and dribble” and be happy they’re making millions of dollars. It’s almost as if white conservatives can’t conceive of a rich person still caring about and advocating for the people who are still in the struggle. LeBron didn’t come out of the womb a millionaire star athlete. He came from the community he still advocates for. Imagine that.
Colby Covington is seen on stage during the UFC 296 press conference at MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 14, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Source: Chris Unger / Getty
Lastly, it always gives me a chuckle that white conservatives’ default non-argument is, “If you hate America then leave!”
Contrary to their own popular belief, conservatives hate America just as much as anyone else does, they just hate different aspects of it. We hate racial injustice, wealth disparities, the whitewashing of American history, police brutality and generally everything else that comes with neo-conservatism and systemic racism. They hate Democrats, “leftists,” the federal government (when Republicans aren’t in charge of it), immigrants, Black Lives Matter advocates (and/or Black lives in general), Muslims, the LGBTQ community, feminists, critical race theorists, diversity, equity, inclusion, pro-choice advocates, and, of course, the ubiquitous “woke.”
If the Colby Covingtons of the world hate America so much, then by that same logic they, too, should just leave.
Also, why is it that whenever these people are telling us to “leave,” they’re always suggesting the worst countries in the world to live in? It’s always China, Somalia, Iraq, or some other imperialistic or war-torn and/or impoverished country that was likely a victim of Western colonialism. It’s never Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada or one of the other dozen or so countries that are ranked higher than the U.S. in terms of freedom and liberty.
In short: Covington and the rest of right-wing America constantly prove themselves to be the true snowflakes who ironically seem to be really insecure about the so-called greatest country in the world.
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