(ThyBlackMan.com) I repeatedly tell people that if you listen intently for any amount of time to what others say, they will reveal their true feelings. If Black America made a practice of doing such, they would be unsurprised by the hatred that many whites spew during diatribes that drip with an elitist haughtiness aimed at maintaining centuries-old racial inequities. The alluded to purveyors of hate-speech repeatedly display the more unfortunate qualities surrounding the First Amendment’s ‘Free Speech’ protections.
The most recent example of speech that tramples on First Amendment protections is conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham. Ingraham, a graduate of Dartmouth and the University of Virginia Law School, recently aimed her trademarked rudeness of “shut up and …” at famed NBA player LeBron James and other Americans whose “formal education” may pale in comparison to her own by telling him to “shut up and dribble.” This phraseology reminds me of an insult that sportswriter William Rhoden heard shouted at a New York Knicks game when a white fan, apparently disappointed at the effort of a player, shouted that he was nothing more than a million dollar slave. Ingraham’s entire race-tinged diatribe against James and all other black NBA players reminds me of a truism that flowed from the baritone voice of the Rev. Dr. 
Johnny R. Heckard when he stated that “education ain’t never done nothing for the heart.” I am quite confident that most expect a Fox News political pundit like Ingraham to have no use for a raised black political voice if it conflicts with their political viewpoints.
The alluded to conflict between Ingraham and James flows from a video featuring James and Kevin Durant, along with Cari Champion, where the NBA duo expresses what I consider standard views within the African-American community regarding Donald Trump. It is difficult for me to believe that a political pundit such as Ingraham would be shocked that any African-American feels that the present resident of the Oval Office has little concern or consideration for non-elites, regardless of their race or ethnicity. Ingraham, feigning an incredulous shock and disappointment, responded to this relatively routine perspective with the following commentary.
Must they run their mouths like that? Unfortunately, a lot of kids and some adults take these ignorantcomments seriously. Look, there might be a cautionary lesson in LeBron for kids. This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA. And it’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball. Oh and LeBron and Kevin? You’re great players but no one voted for you. Millions elected Trump to be their coach. So keep the political commentary to yourself. Or as someone once said, shut up and dribble.
Ingraham’s vitriol is nothing less than a desperate attempt to revive an antiquated centuries-old historical context when her ancestors were able to “keep the nigger” in his place via economic reprisals and physical punishments that extended into areas such as rape, lynching, and burning at the stake. Put simply, whites were the original possessors of maintaining their privileged status ‘by any means necessary.’
In the yesteryear that Ingraham desires, African-Americans are to be seen (serving white needs) and not heard (even during occasions of undeniable pain, gross unfairness, and the extension of inequality). When the entire political playing field is considered, Ingraham’s commentary is only one portion of a larger effort to extend the tyrannical rule of privileged whites. A plot whose success is greatly bolstered by a marginalized poor and white working-class populace whose racial hatred has repeatedly led them to ‘cut off their nose to spite their face.’ The only escape route for poor and working-class whites marginal socioeconomic position is a de-emphasis on racial matters and a doubling-down on unionization and class struggle.
Make no mistake about Ingraham or any other race-baiting commentary spewed into the public space for consumption by poor and working-class whites, it is designed to extend their monopolies over all spaces, even those occupied by white non-elites.
If nothing else, Ingraham’s gross public behavior reveals an understandable fear that a figure such as LeBron James holds more cultural capital and influence over an admiring American populace than she could ever hope to possess.
At the core of Ingraham’s obvious frustrations is the undeniable reality that the America her kind are seeking to “make great again” is slipping from their greedy, old, white hands and falling into progressive hands of a “rainbow” of younger Americans. While Ingraham seeks to defend the intellectual ineptitude and gross immorality emanating from current national-level politicians like a wounded wild beast crying out for aid from her kind, figures such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Gregg Popovich, and Colin Kaepernick are to be applauded for their courageous attempts to challenge frail and decaying pockets of power in this nation.
As LeBron James put it, he is “more than an athlete” and thank God for that; because we need progressive voices from every arena to expose figures such as Ingraham who have for far too long used their platforms to misdirect naïve audiences regarding the source of economic inequities and misery in this nation.
The fact that a figure such as LeBron James has a colossal platform from which he can communicate to an American populace eager to listen to his perspective is quite possibly the most frightening variable in this entire fray to Ingraham. It is this reality that leads me to advise LeBron James to “speak on my brother, speak on.”
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.
