Kareem Abdul-Jabbar weighs in on recent events

God Almighty

Your Lord
Joined
Oct 31, 2012
Messages
2,185
Reputation
-225
Daps
9,611
Recent incidents of anti-Semitic tweets and posts from sports and entertainment celebrities are a very troubling omen for the future of the Black Lives Matter movement, but so too is the shocking lack of massive indignation. Given the New Woke-fulness in Hollywood and the sports world, we expected more passionate public outrage. What we got was a shrug of meh-rage.

When reading the dark squishy entrails of popular culture, meh-rage in the face of sustained prejudice is an indisputable sign of the coming Apatholypse: apathy to all forms of social justice. After all, if it’s OK to discriminate against one group of people by hauling out cultural stereotypes without much pushback, it must be OK to do the same to others. Illogic begets illogic.

Ice Cube’s June 10 daylong series of tweets, which involved some creepy symbols and images, in general implied that Jews were responsible for the oppression of blacks. NFL player DeSean Jackson tweeted out several anti-Semitic messages, including a quote he incorrectly thought was from Hitler (not your go-to guy for why-can’t-we-all-get-along quotes) stating that Jews had a plan to “extort America” and achieve “world domination.” Isn’t that SPECTRE’s job in James Bond movies?

These statements would be laughed at by anyone with a middle-school grasp of reason, but then former NBA player Stephen Jackson, a self-proclaimed activist, undid whatever progress his previous advocacy may have achieved by agreeing with DeSean Jackson on social media. Then he went on to talk about the Rothschilds owning all the banks and his support for the notorious homophobe and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. That is the kind of dehumanizing characterization of a people that causes the police abuses that killed his friend, George Floyd.

June continued to bust out all over with anti-Semitism when performer Chelsea Handler, herself Jewish, posted videos of Farrakhan to her 3.9 million followers. That means almost 4 million people received a subliminal message that even some Jews think being anti-Jewish is justified.

That same month, President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign also has been criticized for exploiting anti-Jewish biases, even though Trump’s son-in-law and campaign honcho Jared Kushner is Jewish and his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism before they married. Playing on the same Rothschild’s trope, they issued a letter accusing three billionaires of Jewish descent of using their fortunes to “rig the November election.” This is the kind of “very fine people on both sides” Trump has employed throughout his political career — pandering to hate groups that has emboldened racists who feel like they’ve gotten the presidential OK to attack people they don’t like.

These famous, outspoken people share the same scapegoat logic as all oppressive groups from Nazis to the KKK: all our troubles are because of bad-apple groups that worship wrong, have the wrong complexion, come from the wrong country, are the wrong gender or love the wrong gender. It’s so disheartening to see people from groups that have been violently marginalized do the same thing to others without realizing that perpetuating this kind of bad logic is what perpetuates racism.

Yes, some of the above have apologized — DeSean Jackson, Stephen Jackson, Chelsea Handler — while others continue to defiantly marinate in their own prejudice. Their arrogant and irrational response to accusations of anti-Semitism, rather than dissuade us, actually confirmed people’s worst opinions. Ice Cube’s response was remorseless: “What if I was just pro-Black? This is the truth brother. I didn’t lie on anyone. I didn’t say I was anti anybody. DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE. I’ve been telling my truth.” His “truth” was clearly anti-Semitic but, like Trump, he believes his truth exists outside facts. As writer Roxane Gay summed it up: “It is impossible to take you seriously with regards to social justice or anything when you post anti-Semitic imagery. What the fukk are you doing?”

Even the apologies floundered, more attempts at spin than true contrition. In a CNN interview, Stephen Jackson was angry and belligerent at being called out: “I stated I could have changed my words. There’s nothing that I said that I support any of that. There’s nothing I said that I hate anybody. I apologize for my words and I could have switched up. That’s the end of it. I love everybody.” While it’s possible the words were wrong, celebrities have a responsibility to get the words right. It’s not enough to have good intentions, because it’s the actual deeds — and words — which have the real impact. In this case destructive impact. In 2013, there were 751 reported hate crimes against Jews, but by 2019 the number had nearly tripled to 2,107. That same year, a gunman in San Diego entered a synagogue and murdered one person while wounding three.

One of the most powerful songs in the struggle against racism is Billie Holiday’s melancholic “Strange Fruit,” which was first recorded in 1939. The song met strong resistance from radio stations afraid of its graphic lyrics about lynching:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Despite those who wanted to suppress the song, it went on to sell a million copies that year and became Holiday’s best-selling record ever. The song was written by a white, Jewish high school teacher, Abel Meeropol, who performed it with his wife around New York before it was given to Holiday.

The lesson never changes, so why is it so hard for some people to learn: No one is free until everyone is free. As Martin Luther King Jr. explained: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” So, let’s act like it. If we’re going to be outraged by injustice, let’s be outraged by injustice against anyone.

THR columnist Kareem Abdul Jabbar is an NBA Hall of Famer and the author of Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage and other books.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over Anti-Semitism in Sports and Hollywood?
 

Remote

Veteran
Supporter
Joined
Aug 29, 2013
Messages
82,408
Reputation
25,597
Daps
371,368
These famous, outspoken people share the same scapegoat logic as all oppressive groups from Nazis to the KKK: all our troubles are because of bad-apple groups that worship wrong, have the wrong complexion, come from the wrong country, are the wrong gender or love the wrong gender. It’s so disheartening to see people from groups that have been violently marginalized do the same thing to others without realizing that perpetuating this kind of bad logic is what perpetuates racism.

:ehh:

I suppose this is fair.

I just think that people are focused on 1 thing at the moment. For the first time in a generation (or three)...people are really taking a look at racism and oppression of black people, specifically. Books on racism are all over the best seller lists on Amazon, Audible, and the New York Times.

It is a discussion that has been a long time coming. And so I think, not to diminish the seriousness of anti-Semitism, but that problem has been taken seriously since the 2nd World War. I think you can forgive people for...perhaps not their lack of outrage but lack of priority.

Not all bigotry and oppression hits the same. At least not right now. Because if a Jew in America has it rough, a black Jew in America has it worse.
 

NYC Rebel

...on the otherside of the pond
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
70,264
Reputation
11,215
Daps
237,521
Maybe read the article since he explains it
Exactly. This is why the Stephen Jackson’s and out of their depth ass niqqas of the world exist. Reading is foreign to them. Addressing what’s actually said and refuting it with well thought out responses even more so
 

Oldschooler

All Star
Joined
Nov 19, 2016
Messages
2,725
Reputation
-182
Daps
7,305
KAJ went to UCLA and has always been an insightful public figure.

I’d also be willing to bet he’s more educated than you, which makes your comment comically ironic.
He's actually not more 'educated' than me if that's your definition but that doesn't matter. I was being fectious. He has people on his ear telling him to write that to save face when if we dig down deep enough jews are just as racist if not more than southern rednecks. But clearly you don't get it because you are one of them. The reality is that if you play a major role on controlling parts of a racist system you should be called out for that. That's not anti-semetic!
 

fifth column

Superstar
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
13,274
Reputation
-335
Daps
22,883
He's actually not more 'educated' than me if that's your definition but that doesn't matter. I was being fectious. He has people on his ear telling him to write that to save face when if we dig down deep enough jews are just as racist if not more than southern rednecks. But clearly you don't get it because you are one of them. The reality is that if you play a major role on controlling parts of a racist system you should be called out for that. That's not anti-semetic!
What is your level of education?
 
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
3,685
Reputation
1,121
Daps
15,608
He's actually not more 'educated' than me if that's your definition but that doesn't matter. I was being fectious. He has people on his ear telling him to write that to save face when if we dig down deep enough jews are just as racist if not more than southern rednecks. But clearly you don't get it because you are one of them. The reality is that if you play a major role on controlling parts of a racist system you should be called out for that. That's not anti-semetic!
Jews are jews because of religion and rednecks in the south have cultural beliefs usually tied directly to the Confederacy/racism. You're lumping an entire faith together to compare them people that very often wear their racism as a badge of honor. And are we really going with the take of KAJ being controlled by the Jews? KAJ is one of the most prolific activists in NBA history, what makes you feel like hes being controlled as opposed to giving his personal feelings on the matter at hand
 
Top