Jason Whitlock Martellus Bennett

After Cleveland Cavaliers’ star LeBron James had his Los Angeles house vandalized and spray-painted with the n-word Wednesday, the sports media world had plenty of takes on the subject Thursday. One of the hottest came from FS1’s Jason Whitlock, who argued that racism shouldn’t concern James because he isn’t poor, and that spawned a reaction from Green Bay Packers’ tight end Martellus Bennett. Here’s Whitlock’s take

That provoked plenty of backlash, including from Bennett. Here’s the Twitter rant Bennett went on over this:

The best part in there is Bennett apparently not being aware that Whitlock is with Fox rather than ESPN these days. That goes to show just how much viewership FS1 has. Whitlock then tried to defend his position, and Bennett wasn’t having it:

Bennett then finished with some further general thoughts, and a compelling conclusion:

If only the world’s differences could be resolved with tacos. Whitlock then tried to come at Bennett again, and was shot down:

In any case, Bennett’s points here have a lot of merit, and Whitlock’s comments about James seem extremely callous at the very least. It’s not surprising that they provoked strong reactions (which is a big part of the goal for Whitlock and Fox), but it’s interesting that some of that reaction came from active pro athletes like Bennett. And Bennett proved himself much more deserving of a national platform than Whitlock in this exchange.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.