About

The JetBlue Racist Burger King, often called "Kingposting", refers to a viral video of an incident on a JetBlue flight in which a passenger in a paper Burger King crown shouted racial slurs against another passenger, who he claims kneed him in the stomach. In October 2020, 4chan users meme'd his appearance, referring to him as "The King," characterizing him as a folk hero and saluting his usage of racist language.

Origin

On October 20th, 2020, prior to a JetBlue flight from Kingston, Jamacia to New York, attendants removed a white man wearing a paper Burger King crown, after a confrontation between the man and a black woman aboard, during which the man shouted racist epithets at the woman.^[1]

The following day, on October 21st, 2020, Twitter user @KING__MEKA tweeted the earliest known video of the incident. In the video, an unidentified white man in a paper Burger King crown can be heard shouting racial slurs and unseen black woman, who he claims stole his seat and kneed him in the stomach.

@JetBlue pic.twitter.com/Eu6lvy9llt

— 〽️ekA✨ (@KING__MEKA) October 21, 2020

Over the next two days, people posted other videos of the incident online. For example, YouTuber Thee Bryt Digital Experience posted a longer version of the clip. It revealed more information about the altercations, showing him enraged and yelling, as he was attacked by other passengers and later on escorted out of the plane by the police. To combat the claim that he was being racist, he said "Excuse me, I’m part-West African, I can say n---r anytime I want!”. As controversy and anger surrounded him, he told them “I want a f--king lawsuit right now, motherf--ker!”.

Spread

Users on 4chan /tv/ and /pol/ soon noticed the viral video, making images and parodies of the scene, often calling him "The King." Many of these memes praise his actions, particularly his willingness to use racist language, framing his racism as heroic. On October 26th, an anonymous 4chan^[2] user in the /bant/ imageboard requested more memes of the man (screenshot below).

Several media outlets covered the incident, including the Independent,^[1] TMZ,^[3] Fox News ^[4] and more.

Giorgio Chiellini's Burger King Post

On July 12th, 2021, a photograph of Italian football player Giorgio Chiellini wearing a crown and sitting on a plane, phone in hand, was posted to the @ThatsFootballTv Twitter^[7] page, captioned: "Chiellini stopped off at Burger King on his way to the airport. #ITA" (shown below). The post gained over 11,000 likes and 2,100 quote tweets in three days.

Commenters immediately drew connections between the post and the JetBlue incident, including Chiellini's crown (although, not a Burger King crown), him sitting on a plane, and the caption mentioning Burger King. All of the top comments reference the JetBlue incident, many using GIFs of "The King" mouthing the n-word. A 4chan thread on /sp/^[8] was also started to discuss the post. It is unknown if the similarities were intentional or not.

Personal Life

"The King" was later found out to be an American man named Ryan Brewer^[5] who has a YouTube channel, in which he spoke about his personal life. Some have speculated that he might be a pedophile with intrest in young girls due the channels he's subscribed to.
It was later revealed that Brewer,a native a Michigan Ohio,had schizophrenia and attempted to hook up with a woman from Jamaica. He exclaimed "he was going to bring home a Jamaican Princess" but the women scammed him for up to $1000 USD. He felt heartbroken and attempted to stay on the island longer by getting kicked off the plane with his racist tangents. ^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References