Geraldo Rivera followed up his recent attack on LeBron James’ “I can’t breathe” shirt with a new lecture about what James’ shirt should say. This time, Rivera thinks James should wear a shirt saying, “We’re the problem.”
As we posted a few days ago, Rivera announced on the Hannity show that James’ “I can’t breathe shirt,” referencing the death of unarmed African American Eric Garner who died at the hands of the police, should have said, “Be a better father to your son” or “Raise your children.”
Today, on Fox & Friends, Rivera doubled down:
RIVERA: “There is no doubt that too many young black men are being killed unnecessarily in encounters with police. There is similarly no doubt as I debated O’Reilly last week that too many black moms are more fearful of the cops when their kids go out at night than they are the crooks.”
…I believe therefore that police should be equipped with non-lethal weapons. I’ve been advocating the return to the taser, taser, taser, taser. Demilitarize the police. Tasers, not tanks.
Now let’s get to LeBron and I can’t breathe. If every single unfortunate, tragic death of a young black man at the hands of a cop was eliminated today, would there be fewer black, brown, and other minority families in crisis today? I submit to you that the families in crisis are in crisis not because of the interface between cops and young black men, but because of family dysfunction, fathers being irresponsible, that is a much more difficult, complex situation than wanting to advocate against police violence toward young black men.
…What about the much more difficult problem of we’re the problem? We’re the problem when it comes to the dysfunction. We’re the problem when it comes to fathers not being responsible for their children. …That’s the t-shirt he should wear.
Rivera did acknowledge that right now, Garner and the police are front and center. But, Rivera has decided, James should wear a different t-shirt once Garner is no a hot topic:
Next week, if you’re going to be a billboard, a walking billboard next week, “Be a better father to your son.”
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck chimed in, “Could be a powerful message there.”
Isn’t it funny how Fox always wants to change the subject to Blacks Behaving Badly whenever people behaving badly to African Americans are in the news?
Watch it below, via Media Matters.