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Fact check: Viral post critical of Black Lives Matter is misattributed to Bubba Watson

Jason Clayworth   | Paste BN
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The claim: Professional golfer Bubba Watson criticized the Black Lives Matter movement 

High-profile athletes and celebrities regularly offer opinions on current events. And it isn't uncommon for opinions to be misattributed to them.

A widely shared social media post that is critical of the Black Lives Matter Movement is attributed to professional golfer Bubba Watson.

“I’m so confused right now,” the lengthy post begins. “I see signs all over saying black lives matter. I’m just trying to figure out which black lives matter. It can’t be the unborn black babies. They are destroyed without a second thought. It’s not black cops. They don’t seem to matter. It’s not my black conservative friends. They are told to shut up if they know what’s best for them by their black counterparts. It’s not black business owners. Their property does not mean anything. It’s not blacks who fought in the military. Their statues are destroyed by the black lives matter protesters with disdain. So which black lives matter again?”

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The post ends with, “We all matter in God’s eyes.” 

Did this message come from the two-time Masters champion?

No link, and a denial

The first clue about the origin of the message is that it does not take the form of a share linked from Watson's social media accounts. It's simply text, copied and pasted, that posters attribute to him.

Paste BN reached out to some of the people who shared the post, but they did not respond to requests for information.

It's not outside the realm of possibility that Watson might hold such views. He's a native of the conservative-leaning Florida Panhandle, and he famously owns the General Lee — a car emblazoned with a Confederate flag that was featured in '70s and '80s “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV series, though he announced on Twitter in 2015 that he was removing the flag image from the vehicle. 

Watson also told Golf Digest in 2017 that he is a friend of President Donald Trump, who has disparaged Black Lives Matter as an "extreme socialist" organization whose "ideology and tactics are right now destroying many Black lives."

More: Fact check: Viral quote about helping poor often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln

However, while Caty Kuzma, a representative of Watson at Pro Sport Management, did not respond to an inquiry from Paste BN, a July 24 message on Watson's verified Twitter account, @Bubbawatson, denies he wrote the post: “I’m not sure how or why my name ended up on the Facebook post, but it ain’t from me.” 

A review of Watson's social media accounts turned up no posting like the one being circulated. And in fact, the message attributed to him had circulated on social media in June without his name being attached to it. It's not clear at what point it became linked to him, or how.

Our ruling: False

Our research turned up no evidence that Watson is the author of the post critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, and his own Twitter account denies it. A nearly identical version of the post had circulated weeks before Watson’s name was attached to it, providing more evidence that he did not write it. We rate this claim FALSE.

Our fact-check sources:

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