Bronny James, Son of NBA Star LeBron James, Faces Online Hate For Dating White Girl

Bron­ny James, the 18-year-old son of NBA leg­end LeBron James, is get­ting hate­ful mes­sages for going to his high school prom with his 19-year-old girl­friend Pey­ton Gel­fu­so. The online hate is sim­i­lar to what they faced last year when they went to Gelfuso’s prom togeth­er. How­ev­er, many peo­ple are sup­port­ing the cou­ple and call­ing out the racism.

Bron­ny James, whose full name is LeBron Ray­mone James Jr., took pic­tures with Gel­fu­so at his Sier­ra Canyon High School prom on Sat­ur­day. After the pic­tures were shared online, Bron­ny got racist com­ments from peo­ple who said he should have tak­en a Black girl instead. The com­ments also said that Gel­fu­so must be with Bron­ny only for his mon­ey and fame.

How­ev­er, many oth­ers showed love for the cou­ple and slammed the racist com­ments. “Y’all in these com­ments are real­ly sick. It’s 2023. Grow up. Inter­ra­cial cou­ples exist,” one sup­port­er wrote.

Bron­ny wore a cus­tom black suit and Dior shoes for the event, while Gel­fu­so wore a black strap­less dress. The two have been dat­ing since at least last year, when they also faced racist back­lash on social media over their relationship.

Bronny’s par­ents, LeBron and Savan­nah James, post­ed pho­tos of Bron­ny before this year’s prom but did not post any pho­tos of Gel­fu­so, prob­a­bly to avoid poten­tial hate. How­ev­er, some peo­ple noticed Gelfuso’s absence and crit­i­cized the racist reaction.

LeBron, a vocal activist for racial jus­tice and crit­ic of social injus­tice, has pre­vi­ous­ly spo­ken out against sys­temic racism, espe­cial­ly relat­ed to police vio­lence. In 2021, for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump called LeBron “racist” after LeBron tweet­ed crit­i­cism of the offi­cer who killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant.

The online hate shows the ongo­ing prob­lems of racism and racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in soci­ety and rela­tion­ships. How­ev­er, the wide­spread sup­port for Bron­ny and Gelfuso’s rela­tion­ship also shows the progress being made toward diver­si­ty and accep­tance. With role mod­els like LeBron James, there is hope that stereo­types and bar­ri­ers can con­tin­ue to be chal­lenged over time.