When the BET Awards aired on Sunday, one of the more notable fashion choices was worn by Jamie Foxx. The Academy Award-winning actor wore a simple T-shirt with an image of Trayvon Martin in a hoodie emblazoned across it. Nothing flashy, but certainly powerful — and, apparently to the people at Fox News, controversial.
Spotted by New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer, Bill O'Reilly and his fellow Fox News anchors wondered aloud whether or not Foxx was a racist and would it have been acceptable for a white celebrity to wear a T-shirt supporting George Zimmerman.
"If a white actor had worn a George Zimmerman T-shirt, would that have been acceptable?" Let's ask Alan Colmes!
"We have a white power structure," Colmes, who is still on television, timidly tried to explain. Fox News analyst Monica Crowley offered that if a white celebrity wore an "I believe George" shirt, "his or her career would be destroyed on the spot."
"But Jamie Foxx is not a racist?" O'Reilly asked, still ignoring the fact that one of these people is dead at the hand of the other. "We can assume, Colmes, that if a white actor did that, he would get a Paula Deen."
We can help answer a couple of O'Reilly's questions ourselves. No, it would not have been socially acceptable for a celebrity to wear a George Zimmerman T-shirt, but we're pretty sure there are some everyday people who are dumb enough to wear them. As for O'Reilly's second question about whether or not Foxx is a racist for wearing a T-shirt to honor the memory of a 17-year-old boy who was murdered, here's our answer: No. A million times, no. Just no. Not at all.
Read more and watch the video at Daily Intelligencer.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.