Photo Courtesy of Instagram (@ciara/@realjasonwhitlock)
R&B singer Ciara recently took to Twitter to call out sports journalist Jason Whitlock over his controversial remarks about the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was brutally beaten to death by Memphis police officers.
On Friday’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Whitlock spoke about Nichols’ death, blaming single Black mothers.
“There is a racial element. And this is a story about young Black men and their inability to treat each other in a humane way,” he said. “Everybody involved in this on the street level was either 24 to 32 years old. Everybody. It was a group of young Black men, five-on-one. Looked like gang violence to me. It looked like what young Black men do when they’re supervised by a single Black woman.”
He added, “And that’s what they got going on in the Memphis Police Department. They’ve elected some, or put some Black woman in charge of the police force, and we are getting the same kind of chaos and disunity and violence that we see in a lot of these cities run by single mothers.”
Ciara, 37, was outraged and immediately slammed him for his statements. She wrote on Twitter, “@WhitlockJason As a black man to get on national TV and say something like this is irresponsible. A lot of amazing kids have come from single mothers. For you to also undermine single black women in the midst of this tragedy is so sad. This woman just lost her son! Do better!”
Related Story: Jason Whitlock Says ‘The Deification Of George Floyd Harms Black People And America’
Many agreed with Ciara, responding to her tweet in support.
On January 30, Whitlock also shared an insensitive clip from an episode of his show, Fearless, making remarks about Tyre Nichols and his death being related to “Baby-mama culture.”
Whitlock’s remarks show his lack of tact and ignorance.