Responding to a furious backlash to his now-deleted Tweet that appeared to dox the Ohio police officer who shot Ma’Khia Bryant, NBA superstar LeBron James admitted that he had “fueled the wrong conversation” about the 16-year-old.
“I fueled the wrong conversation about Ma’Khia Bryant and I owe it to her and this movement to change it,” James wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to @fabiolacineas for educating us about Ma’Khia and her story and why this needs to be about her.”
I fueled the wrong conversation about Ma’Khia Bryant and I owe it to her and this movement to change it. Thank you @fabiolacineas for educating us about Ma’Khia and her story and why this needs to be about her. https://t.co/Owh1vDJWXi #sayhername #Blacklivesmatter
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 3, 2021
The article James shared was a Vox piece titled, “Why they’re not saying Ma’Khia Bryant’s name,” by Fabiola Cineas, who writes that “The 16-year-old Black girl could never be the ‘perfect victim.’”
“After watching 15 seconds of police body camera footage last week, viewers of various races and political affiliations had made a decision: 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was ‘the aggressor’ — the ‘fat,’ ‘huge,’ ‘knife-wielding attacker’ and ‘maniac’ who deserved to be fatally shot by the police on April 20 in Columbus, Ohio,” wrote Cineas. “According to these viewers, Nicholas Reardon, the police officer who immediately shot and killed Bryant, who was holding a knife, was justified. That she was a teenager in the middle of an altercation, in which she was presumed to be defending herself, did not matter.”
Cineas then claims that “Bryant’s death has become a debate that questions a child’s actions — and worthiness to live — instead of another example of the racism of policing and the institution’s failure to provide wholesome support, care, and safety for the communities it serves.”
“The insistence that Reardon had no other option than to take Bryant’s life to save others — though he risked everyone’s life in the process — displays the lack of consideration and value that society places on the lives of Black girls and women,” Cineas argued, before presenting Bryant as a victim.
“And even for those who do see her as a victim, they’ll still victim-blame, erasing the systemic oppression — including that Black children are far more likely to be in foster care than their white counterparts, and kids in foster care are often exposed to high levels of violence — that brought her to being killed at the hands of the police.”
It’s hard to argue that James’ tweet can be viewed as an admission of wrongdoing given that he lauded Cineas for “educating us about Ma’Khia,” when clear video evidence of the attack includes footage of Bryant apparently screaming “I’m gonna stab the f*** out of you, b****.”
In new video, Makhia Bryant can be heard screaming “I’m gonna stab the fuck out of you, bitch,” while lunging at two unarmed people who were posing no imminent physical threat to her
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 22, 2021
Soon after Ma’Khia Bryant was killed earlier this month, James posted a picture of the police officer who prevented further violence, alongside the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT. #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) responded to James’ tweet by writing: “. @KingJames , with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact.”
.@KingJames, with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless.
The officer saved a young girl's life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact. pic.twitter.com/GTHn1VAAlf
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) April 21, 2021