LeVar Burton has weighed in on a man claiming there's no way he can be racist because he allegedly has a tattoo of Kunta Kinte on his arm.
A caller named James hit up the English talk radio station LBC to question Vice President Kamala Harris' qualifications for leadership. Along the way, he dropped quite a gem.
"I have got a tattoo on me arm of Kunta Kinte, he was an African slave, right?" James tells the baffled host Ben Kentish. "So I'm not racist in any way, shape, or form. ... He was a hero of mine. I'm not racist."
"Pic or it didn't happen," Burton responded in a tweet, along with the hashtag #bydhttmwfi.
In a follow-up he added, "Racism is not simply a personality flaw, it’s also a spiritual defect."
According to a 2012 entry on Urban Dictionary, the hashtag #bydhttmwfi—"but you don't have to take my word for it"—is credited to Burton, who used it in expressing his gratitude for people on the platform formerly known as Twitter helping him out in his pursuit to obtain the handle @ReadingRainbow.
Burton continues to use the hashtag to this day.
The 67-year-old actor may be popularly known for his work on Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he earned his first Emmy nomination in 1977 at the age of 19 for his portrayal of Kunta Kinte on the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots.
Burton recently spoke with Rachel Martin on NPR's Wild Card about the three aforementioned roles and how they have allowed him to "portray the Black experience in America from our enslavement to the stars."
Burton was in attendance last month when Star Trek received a Peabody Award, joining Reading Rainbow and Roots.
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