Black Basketball Recruits Warned About Bruce Pearl After Auburn Head Coach Attacks Kamala Harris

A social media post from the white head coach of one of the top men’s college basketball programs in the nation has sparked calls for Black players he’s recruiting to consider being student-athletes elsewhere.

Auburn University head coach Bruce Pearl’s fateful commentary on Monday morning offered a sharp rebuke of Vice President Kamala Harris while employing a term that critics say conservative Republicans have turned into a racist dog whistle.

Bruce Pearl is another Tommy Tuberville. The irony that they are both connected to Auburn University says a lot. Unfortunately the college coaching ranks are full of people just like them. Racist coaches whose livelihoods depend on young black men and women athletes.

— Mitchell Smoot (@MLSMOOT1) August 26, 2024

At the same time, the underlying suggestion behind the post was that Pearl supports Harris’ opponent, Donald Trump, a man who has spent decades demeaning and racially discriminating against Black people.

The combination of circumstances prompted an outpouring of calls to prevent Pearl from successfully recruiting Black student-athletes to play for any basketball program that he leads.

Bruce Pearl uses the word "woke"…. y'all already know he lets that other word fly behind closed doors….

— Strictly 4 My X’ers (@Lizzs_Lockeroom) August 26, 2024

Journalist Roland Martin was among the first to draw attention to Pearl’s post on X, formerly Twitter, that thanked MAGA U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton for lying that Harris – whom he called “extreme” – would “kick you off the health insurance you get through your job” once she becomes president.

Cotton then fearmongered along racial lines when he claimed “she wants everyone—even illegal aliens—on a government plan.”

Pearl – whose success as a basketball coach has come courtesy of the parade of talented Black players he’s coached – responded to Cotton’s disingenuous post with a wild conspiracy theory about what he described as Harris’ “socialist, woke progressive beliefs” and accused her without proof of “changing  them or hiding them to get elected!” Pearl punctuated his post by adding: “We won’t get fooled again!”

Thank you for pointing this out Senator Cotton, except my guess is that like many of her socialist, woke progressive beliefs she's now changing them or hiding them to get elected! We won't get fooled again! https://t.co/qTuLHxjADV

— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) August 26, 2024

That, in turn, prompted Martin to issue a warning to “all Black ballplayers and their parents considering @AuburnMBB” and call Pearl “trash.” Martin reminded those players that “There are many other SEC schools to consider. Choose accordingly.”

Others soon offered similar sentiments.

“So, Bruce Pearl is advertising that he is maga racist trash,” one person posted on X. “Good to know.”

Another wrote: “Thank you Bruce Pearl for removing the invisibility cloak and revealing who you really are. To think you coach young Black men and don’t understand what ‘woke’ is. Coaches making $$ off people they really do not like is a thing.”

Bruce Pearl who is the head coach of Alabama Tweet out a racist attack against Kamala Harris. I am calling on The SEC Commissioner and the Athlete Director for Alabama to call Bruce Pearl out.

— Darrell I'd Be Rather Woke Than Weird West (@westdarrell1984) August 27, 2024

“Bruce Pearl built his Basketball program and legacy on the backs of Black athletes,” another post said. “Now he publicly backs Trump and MAGA racist polices and agenda that target Black people. Why would any Black parent send their child to play under MAGA Bruce Pearl? Stay away.”

Hasan Jeffries, an author who is also the brother of House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, cautioned: “If they love #Trump then they hate you!”

Whether Pearl wants to admit it, his social media post attacking Harris carries the strong suggestion that he supports Trump’s candidacy and more.

Bruce Pearl caping for racists is quite the choice.

— Matt Murphy (@MattMurph24) August 26, 2024

Pearl, who is Jewish, could come under fire for speaking out in such strong terms against the candidacy of a woman who could become the first Black and Asian president of the United States.

Pearl’s race could particularly factor in what is sure to be an ensuing firestorm because of his influential position leading a group of mostly Black young men. That is especially true since Trump has referred to Black people and nations in derogatory terms to go along with his decades-long documented history of discriminating against Black people.

To be sure, Cotton’s post included a screenshot from an NBC News article that was published back when Harris was a presidential candidate in 2019 — well before her historic election to the vice presidency and her current candidacy for the White House.

Watching Bruce Pearl self destruct on Twitter https://t.co/Jx6OuCmaAs pic.twitter.com/PCUNUMeXEw

— Will Chamblee (@WillChamblee2) August 27, 2024

Cotton’s post referred to her calls back then for “Medicare for all,” a position that she no longer supports in her current iteration as a presidential candidate.

But, as CNN pointed out earlier this month, falsely claiming that Harris is still a proponent of the policy has conveniently become “a Trump campaign attack line.”

In other words, Pearl lashed out at Harris under the falsest of pretenses that have been championed by the Trump campaign in what was likely a knee-jerk reaction to promote the MAGA ideals his social media post suggests he upholds.

In case you missed it, the term “woke” has effectively been co-opted by conservatives in usage that is tantamount to the N-word, critics have said.

At this point woke is a slur. The way the right uses it is an undercover way of saying "those people," or "non-white people." It's a polite way of saying the n-word but in this case the n-word includes Blacks, LGBTQ folks, and other marginalized groups.

— Touré (@Toure) March 15, 2023

As of Tuesday morning, Auburn University had remained silent about the budding controversy.

Pearl has previously taken to social media to express other political opinions along these same lines.

That includes reacting to the failed assassination attempt on Trump last month when Pearl blamed the political violence in Western Pennsylvania on “the media” and “Justice Dept” in criticisms that echo sentiments espoused by Trump.

Thank God President Trump survived this assassination attempt. His courageous reaction moments after getting shot tells you he is willing to take a bullet and fight for this country. Political violence has been tolerated, the media, Justice Dept, others are complicit https://t.co/EG4QJR9UPf

— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) July 14, 2024

Later that same day, Pearl rejected comparisons of Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and staunchly pushed back against a New Republic article that he said suggested “Trump in 2024 is Hitler in 1932” despite the existence of the Republican-led Project 2025 agenda that aims for sweeping restrictions of civil freedoms and liberties.

This is going too far! A discussion of differences in policy and direction a President wants to take the country is important, but to suggest Trump in 2024 is Hitler in 1932? Let's all take a timeout! We are the greatest country in the world and we are all better than this! https://t.co/C7NeGC59TI

— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) July 14, 2024

Pearl, notably, has also criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for not doing enough to support Israel following a terror attack from the Hamas militant group in October.

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