Boston College historian compares White House UFC event to 19th-century lynching

A Boston College history professor drew criticism after comparing the UFC Freedom 250 event held on the White House South Lawn to the racial lynchings of the 19th century.

Heather Cox Richardson, a historian and prolific Substack writer, made the remarks during an appearance on former CNN anchor Jim Acosta’s YouTube program, where she argued that the “impulse” behind the June 14 mixed martial arts spectacle was rooted in the same ideology that drove racial violence against Black Americans and other minorities during the Gilded Age.

Ms. Richardson began by criticizing the use of a military honor cordon at the Lincoln Memorial to present the fighters ahead of the event.

“I think Trump is deliberately perverting those things that Americans hold dear,” she said. “He forced them to stand on those steps in honor of the UFC fighters coming down. It was almost as if he was saying, ’I don’t care what you hold sacred. I’m going to use all of it for myself.’”

She then drew her more sweeping historical parallel.

“I mean, it’s not really a stretch to say that the same impulse that created the UFC fight on the White House lawn is the impulse that really pushed lynching in the late 19th century against Black Americans overwhelmingly, but also against Italian Americans in Louisiana, for example, or Mexican Americans in the American West, or indigenous Americans,” she said.

Ms. Richardson further argued that the underlying sentiment amounted to a belief that “America is a white nation and anybody who challenges that needs to be purged from the body politic.”

Several commentators rebuked the comparison, including some not aligned with the political right. Journalist Jesse Singal, known for heterodox views, wrote on X that he could not understand how comparing “a (bombastic, dumb, Trump-aggrandizing) UFC fight at the White House to lynching, or anything in the same moral universe as lynching, is remotely intelligent or useful historical analysis.”

Mr. Singal added that the remarks did nothing but “reinforce RW populist sentiments.” Conservative journalist Mark Hemingway of RealClearInvestigations was more pointed, writing: “Heather Cox Richardson is not an historian — she’s an IQ test, and anyone that takes her seriously is telling on themselves.”

UFC Freedom 250, held Sunday as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, drew an estimated 4,300 guests — including roughly 1,200 active-duty service members, cabinet officials and VIPs — to a custom-built octagon on the South Lawn. The seven-fight card featured two title bouts, with Justin Gaethje defeating Ilia Topuria for the lightweight championship in the main event.