LeBron James promotes 'love' in response to the hate in Charlottesville

For the second straight year, LeBron James used his foundation’s annual “We Are Family Reunion” event as a platform to promote social change, this time issuing a message of love in response to the hateful “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and President Donald Trump’s comments about it.

Speaking to several thousand students and family members involved in his LeBron James Family Foundation, which recently extended its pledge to provide financial and educational support for “at-risk” students in Akron, Ohio, through college, the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar dismissed Trump as “the so-called president” and pledged his support for “the innocent people in Charlottesville.”

The following is the conclusion of his speech, via ESPN:

Earlier on Tuesday, James tweeted in response to the president’s unhinged news conference — in which he equated the white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis who marched on Charlottesville over the weekend bearing Tiki torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us,” with those who rallied against them, including Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old woman who was struck and killed by an alleged far-right extremist who drove his car into a crowd of innocent people on Saturday.

Trump also suggested some involved in the “Unite the Right” rally were “very fine people” who were “there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.” Lee, of course, was the general in command of the Confederate States Army in defense of states’ rights to slavery during the Civil War, before surrendering in 1865 and later arguing “to obliterate the marks of civil strife and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.”

Trump’s comments aligned with a statement he made on Saturday following a violent clash between the alt-right and those who opposed them that left dead a woman whose final message on Facebook was, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” The president described the events soon afterward as an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides — on many sides.”

Following that address, James took to Twitter to point out the juxtaposition of the president’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” with a massive white supremacist rally on U.S. soil:

In between James’ tweets in defiance of Trump, as criticism mounted against the president’s “many sides” statement in the immediate aftermath of the events in Charlottesville, Trump said on Monday, “Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” before once again equating the alt-right with those who rallied against them on Tuesday.

James’ remarks on Charlottesville on Tuesday marked the second straight summer he addressed the crowd at his foundation’s annual charity event about social issues. Last year, a month after opening the ESPYs alongside Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade with a call for political action in the wake of a string of race-related shootings, James told his supporters, “I believe in order for us to ultimately be as great as we can be as a nation that all of us have to go back into our communities and lend our hand. It starts brick by brick. It starts person by person. Family by family. Kid by kid.”

James publicly supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential election. He has also been outspoken against Trump on multiple occasions since the president took office, responding to the White House’s attempts to issue a travel ban against people from seven majority-Muslim countries by telling the Hollywood Reporter in February, “I am not in favor of this policy or any policy that divides and excludes people. I stand with the many, many Americans who believe this does not represent what the United States is all about. And we should continue to speak out about it.”

In May, someone allegedly spray-painted a racial slur on the gate of James’ Los Angeles home. In response, James opened his media availability before the NBA Finals by saying, “Racism will always be a part of the world, a part of America, and hate in America — especially for African-Americans — is living every day. And even though that it’s concealed most of the time, people hide their faces and will say things about you and when they see you they’ll smile in your face, it’s alive every single day.”

The night before James’ call to action on Tuesday, Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker addressed an anti-racism rally in Salt Lake City, Utah, promoting a similar message of love in response to hate.

The conclusion of his speech, via The Salt Lake Tribune:

More NBA players responded to the violence in Charlottesville on social media over the weekend:

Meanwhile, multiple ex-NBA players expressed disappointment in Trump’s response to the racism spewed in Virginia, including Stephen Jackson, who told USA Today at Sunday’s BIG3 regular-season finale in Los Angeles, “At the end of the day, if you’re not against racism, you’re racist. Point blank.”

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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