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LeBron James Praised Black Women and Saltine Americans Are Predictably Upset

You can pretty much set your watch to it at this point. Suggested Reading ‘Sinners’ Releases in Black American Sign Language. Here’s What That Means A Burger King Employee Throws a Drink on a Child in Viral Video, and Black TikTok Goes Nuts The Best, Black TV Shows, Movies to Stream on AppleTV+ Video will…

You can pretty much set your watch to it at this point.

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

A certain contingent of white people is once against incensed at LeBron James. Disgusted. Siiiiiiuuuuck with rage.

The reason?

LeBron James had the nerve, the gall, the appalling lack of shame to show love to black women on his Instagram account Wednesday.

In two separate posts with the same caption, James shared galleries of magazine cover photos featuring black women. These included Beyoncรฉโ€™s recent Vogue cover, as well as Rihanna on British Vogue, Lupita Nyongโ€™o on Porter, Zendaya on Marie Claire, Tiffany Haddish on Glamour, and the ladies of Pose on Out magazine.

James wrote underneath the galleries:

Nothing in this world is more POWERFUL than Colored Women!! Thank you all for continuing to not settle and setting great examples in life for so many looking up to you for inspiration/guidance and love!! My daughter is watching! #WomenPower

(OK, a little bit of a yikes on โ€œColored Womenโ€โ€”weโ€™re going to assume he meant โ€œwomen of colorโ€ there, even though he was quite clearly referencing black women specifically.)

As The Glow Upโ€™s Maiysha Kai has noted, this has been a stellar fall season for black women landing the covers of major magazines. September issuesโ€”the biggest and, for many glossies, the most lucrative issues of the yearโ€”are huge deals, and weโ€™re seeing an unprecedented array of black celebrities and models gracing their covers. James is far from the only one to notice or point out the importance of this kind of representation (and affirmation of black womenโ€™s beauty and cultural power), and his inclusion of trans women is particularly notable.

But the Saltine Americans among us canโ€™t let LeBron live, predictably flooding his comments with bland, โ€œAll Lives Matterโ€-flavored tears.

The Shade Room compiled some of the best ones, including:

An Instagram user named Gavin Lombardi saying: โ€œKinda racist to white women tbhโ€

Danmads asking: โ€œDoes that include white women?โ€ (The answer: Um, nah.)

Jsanchez908, in his internet yelling voice: โ€œNOTHING IN THIS WORLD?โ€

JohnnyBoy.631 with the saltine hypothetical: โ€œLetโ€™s do a role reversal now people. Now letโ€™s say Tom Brady or Tom Cruise or George Clooney for that matter came on IG and said โ€œNOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS MORE POWERFUL THAN WHITE WOMEN.โ€ I know ya mofoโ€™s would be having a fit!

And chatnigga with: โ€œlebron and beyonce best power couple.โ€ Okay, that one doesnโ€™t actually fit in with the rest of these comments, I just wholeheartedly agree. Also, sorry Jay-Z.

You might recall the same fate befell Sean โ€œDiddyโ€ Combs when he showed black women some love on his Twitter timeline. Itโ€™s almost like itโ€™s a pattern or something.

https://twitter.com/diddy/status/890565824150425600

Of course, this conversation has been gone over time and time again, but oh well, itโ€™s summer and we have time.

White people, in fact, do a version of what James did. But typically, when these white peopleโ€”and more importantly, white institutions, like the very fashion mags James was sharingโ€”big up white women, historically, they just called them โ€œwomenโ€ and left out everybody else. The prototypical โ€œAmericanโ€ women as so white you didnโ€™t even have to place โ€œwhiteโ€ as a descriptor; it was assumed, and everyone else got the hyphen. But donโ€™t believe me, believe the years and years and years and years of magazine covers, articles, books, movies, television shows to examine the evidence.

In the meantime, Iโ€™ll be over here, buying these covers like Maiysha told me to, and stanning for my president.

Straight From The Root

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