When pardoning the late boxer Jack Johnson in May, President Donald Trump gave a statement about the circumstances of his 105-year-old conviction. It occured “during a period of tremendous racial tension in the United States,” said the President. “Johnson served 10 months in a federal prison for what many view as a racially-motivated injustice. He was treated very rough, very tough.” Earlier that day, during an interview with Fox News, Trump had backed the N.F.L.’s policies punishing players who refuse to stand for the anthem, saying that if you were unwilling to stand, “maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”



It’s an irony that Trump and many of his supporters seem intent to overlook. They can acknowledge the bigotries faced by Jack Johnson and celebrate the activism of Muhammad Ali, all without recognizing the fact that their modern-day equivalents are the likes of Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James. Most recently, an interview James did with CNN’s Don Lemon attracted Trump’s ire, inspiring him to tweet a nakedly-racist attack on both men’s intelligence.

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Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018

Trump, despite earning criticism from actors, musicians, and even the Pope, is particularly alert to any hint of rebuke from black sports figures. From Jemele Hill, to Steph Curry, and even LaVar Ball, Trump misses no opportunity to mock and demean black athletes. Though Trump’s feuds are unusually public and personal, he is not the first American to hate and fear the black athlete—only the latest and the loudest.

The President is right about one thing: Jack Johnson’s conviction was a racially-motivated injustice. Johnson was the first black heavyweight world champion, and enraged white audiences who subscribed to the the era’s long-held beliefs of white athletic dominance. The outrage was only compounded by his marriages, each to a white woman, in an era when the barest hint of miscegenation could trigger the lynchings of less prominent black men. His conviction for crossing state lines with a white woman in a supposed violation of the anti-prostitution Mann act was a clearly racist attempt to end his career. And the attempts to squash and silence noncompliant black stars have only continued in the intervening century.

Athlete activism crested with the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, with no one embodying the decade’s revolutionary spirit better than Muhammad Ali. When he died, elderly, withered by Parkinson’s, and the beneficiary of every medal and honor our nation bestows, it was easy to forget how truly hated Ali was for daring to choose his own name and religion, for speaking out against racism, and for refusing to fight in Vietnam. And we were eager to overlook the price he paid for his activism, when he was stripped of his title and banned from his sport for three years at the height of his career. When Ali died, Trump, like many who never supported his politics in life, was quick to praise him.

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Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2016

Ali wasn’t alone in paying a personal price for his activism. During the 1968 Olympics, track and field stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos brought America’s national shame to the world stage by giving the black power salutes on the Olympic podium. (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, meanwhile, boycotted that summer’s games entirely.) Smith and Carlos’ silent protest led to their expulsion from the Olympics, an event that had, just 28 years before, been filled with swastika flags and Nazi salutes.

As Howard Bryant explains in his book, The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism, athletic salaries exploded as the Civil Rights movement waned, ushering in a generation of less politically-inclined athletes with multimillion-dollar incomes to protect. There have always been plenty of sports stars willing to stick to stay silent off the field—for every Ali there was a Joe Louis, who not only joined the Army during World War II but recruited other African-Americans to the still-segregated U.S. armed forces. For every Bill Russell, who refused to stay silent as he endured years of racism in Boston while playing for the Celtics, there was an O.J. Simpson, who famously declared, “I’m not black—I’m O.J.” But in the ‘80s and ‘90s, political voices were few and far between, as stridently apolitical athletes dominated.

Athletes, including Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, attend a 1967 summit in support of Ali’s decision refusal to be drafted. Robert Abbott Sengstacke Getty Images

According to Bryant, Tiger Woods couldn’t even be persuaded to attend a Mets game celebration of the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking of baseball’s color lines—even after being invited by then-President Bill Clinton:

The president called Tiger Woods personally, and Woods told him the same thing. Thanks for the call, Mr. President, but I'm swamped. Tiger, Bill Clinton said, what commitments? I'm the president of the United States. Who do I have to call? I think I can get you out of them. Tiger held firm, giving President Clinton the stiff arm as well. The president offered to send an Air Force jet to deliver him to Shea Stadium. Instead, Woods was in Mexico partying with his friends on the beach.

Michael Jordan’s political activism, meanwhile, has long been summed up by the possibly-apocryphal quote that he didn’t wade into politics because “Republicans buy shoes, too.” When Trump says that he “likes Mike,” he means that he likes very rich black men, who, happy to earn fabulous profits for even richer white men, will use their truly mammoth platforms, their ability to puncture our increasingly impermeable political bubbles, to do little more than hock sneakers.

The tide changed again, however, in wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, which sparked the recent wave of athlete activism. In the Trump era, this has coincided with an increased willingness on the part of brands and corporations—the companies behind lucrative sponsorship deals that athletes once feared imperilling—to enter the political fray themselves. While there are still high costs to activism, as Kaepernick can well attest, ours is now an era in which sufficiently successful and powerful sports figures can voice political views and keep their sneaker deals.

And no figure is a better match for Trump than LeBron James. Unlike Kaepernick, it would be impossible to accuse James of being an attention-starved star in decline—he’s made it to the NBA Finals for the last eight consecutive years. His impressive record as a humanitarian and family man leave little ground for personal attacks. And his latest charitable effort, a public school he opened in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, is James’ most impressive yet. The school is unique in that it provides to its low-income student population the stunning amenities usually available at only the best private and charter schools—an on-site food bank, job training for students’ parents, and guaranteed free tuition to the University of Akron for all graduates—while remaining a part of the public school system, adhering to state standards and not draining funds from the public education system.

It’s basically the opposite of the Trump administration’s vision for education, which would suffocate public schools in a deluge of vouchers and charters. Even the First Lady doesn’t seem to know whose side she’s on.

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Oh boy. After President Trump insulted LeBron James, Melania Trump issues a statement saying she’s open to visiting the school he just opened in Ohio. pic.twitter.com/t0eJ4oDrxq — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 4, 2018

Trump is bitterly fighting the tide change since his ‘80s heyday, when black stars put their bodies to use for white entertainment and largely kept their mouths shut. Even his beloved Mike seemingly evolved, and updated his politics stance to suit. Today, Jordan responded to Trump’s tweet, saying that he “support[s] LJ,” and that he’s “doing an amazing job for his community.”

Meanwhile, LeBron James' priorities remain in order.



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Let’s get it kids!! Love you guys https://t.co/kY88geedus — LeBron James (@KingJames) August 4, 2018

Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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