Is Cleveland Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Racist for Remarks Against LeBron James?

Jesse Jackson seems to think so. Former Browns running back legend Jim Brown, too.

What do you think?

In case you've been living under a rock, hiding out in a cave with Bin Laden somewhere in the mountains of Afganistan, there was this NBA free agent by the name of LeBron James.

James bolted his hometown Cleveland Cavs to play with his buddies Dwyane Wande and Chris Bosh in South Beach.

Naturally, many of the people in Cleveland are angry. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert would be among them. But when an owner like Gilbert speaks out, people sit up and take notice.

And what they noticed was an incendiary letter to Cleveland’s fans that was sent by Gilbert, in which the Cavs owner rips James and calls him "cowardly."

Now, I have also called James a coward and though my article has appeared on several national websites, civic leaders like Jackson don't care what I think.

Oh, but they care about what Gilbert thinks.

Jackson said Gilbert’s comments were “mean, arrogant and presumptuous."

In a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jackson went on to say that “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner-employee relationship—between business partners—and LeBron honored his contract.”  

Thank you Yahoo Sports for those comments. However, I do not wish to thank Jesse for spewing that nonsense.

Whether you agree with Gilbert's comments or not, to try and find hints of racism is quite a stretch. 

Harsh? Yes.

Racist? Hell no.

But Jackson's viewpoint should not be a surprise. This guy could find racist intents in the Bible. That would be the King James Bible, incidentally.

Everything is about white society being prejudiced to Jackson, and, to a lesser degree, to Jim Brown as well.

Again, this is not about whether you agree with Gilbert's comments; this is about whether the remarks could be construed as racist.   

The irony here is that Jackson thinks Gilbert's rant was irresponsible, yet his own rants about Gilbert acting like a slave owner is much more irresponsible because it questions a man's integrity.

Look, I'm tired of talking about LeBron James. But I am even more sick of reading about how everything is race-related.

If James were white, I'm certain that Gilbert would have had the same things to say.

Now, I realize that racism still exists in the world today. One would have to be very naive to think otherwise.

But Gilbert isn't picking on LeBron because he is a black man, but because he is a sore loser and wants to appeal to the fans in an effort to deflect criticism as to why he (Gilbert) couldn't get James to re-sign.

And he was angry.

I might not have said those things in an open letter like Gilbert did, but then again, I wouldn't have said what Jackson did either.

Two wrongs don't make a right, after all.