Prejudging

On a recent episode of the podcast, “The Shop”, LeBron James was asked, “Why do you hate Boston?” And he replied, “Because they racist as f***.” So, the entire city of Boston is racist because of the actions of one or a few people. That statement is reminiscent of people claiming all police officers are racist because of the actions of Dereck Chauvin. 

Racism is a form of prejudice, and prejudice is pre-judging someone without knowing them; it is also grouping people together and painting them with a broad brush. LeBron James grouped the entire city of Boston together, and made a sweeping judgement, thus judging hundreds of thousands of people without ever meeting them, without ever knowing them.

One person in the stands of 25,000 may have made one racist remark, and LeBron James used that one person and that one incident to declare that Boston, the entire city, everyone who lives there, is “racist as f***”. That statement is the height of prejudice; maligning tens of thousands of people because of the actions of one person; disparaging an entire city based on one or a few incidences. LeBron was decrying racism with prejudice, unable to look beyond himself and his situation to understand what those words actually mean.