Bomani Jones: On Race, White People Can't Be Trusted

John Simmons | March 15, 2023
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HBO’s Bomani Jones never says anything intelligent or trustworthy on his show “Game Theory With Bomani Jones,” where he infuses farcical race and white privilege narratives in sports stories and has horrifically poor ratings as a result.

His Friday episode didn’t deviate from this pattern at all.

Jones offered his opinion on a recent debate on ESPN’s “First Take” between Kendrick Perkins and JJ Reddick, where the latter pushed back on the former for a racist narrative he pushed about the voting process for the NBA’s MVP award. 

Jones predictably defended the racist narrative Perkins pushed -- since Jones loves to talk about racism -- and called out Reddick for daring to contradict the series of "facts" Perkins stated that Jones thought were as good as Gospel.

Jones’ monologue went like so:

If you try to make the argument that something doesn’t involve race, might not be the best look to talk over a Black man on live television, tell him his argument was flat-out wrong and cut him off over and over again. Let’s be fair, man. White people aren’t always racially biased. But you can never be 100% sure.

You’re acting like Perk’s crazy for bringing it up. That’s what’s crazy. This is America, Jack. And I get that Perk and JJ are just talking about the NBA MVP. But chastising us for saying something might be racist in the land where racism was perfected, that’s how you get pats on the back from folks I know JJ Redick does not want on his side.

So not only is Reddick apparently wrong for calling out the false dialogue Perkins spewed, we also can't fully trust his opinion -- or any one else with his skin color -- is without racist bias because he’s white. Isn’t that a textbook example of racism?

Furthermore, Jones’ argument suggests that black people can never be wrong if they say that racism explains why certain things happen the way they do. If you’re black and cry “racism,” you must be right because evidently only black people know what racism is like and white people could never understand.

I think white people in today’s society understand racism far better than Jones might realize.

If blacks are allowed to talk about race and whites are not, that's racism. If your thoughts and opinions are automatically viewed as trustworthy or not because of your skin color, that’s racism. If black people's thoughts on race are beyond criticism but white people's takes are not, that’s racism.

Jones is right, racism can exist in sports. But it's often not pushed by the people he wants you to think it is.

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