The movie, which was publicly promoted last weekend and then doubled down on Saturday night, is so fierce and uncharacteristically antagonistic that a blatant statement from the NBA and a tweet from Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai Doesn’t come close to addressing the severity. Situation. Especially not now.
Whether he intended it or not, Irving’s tacit support of “Negroes from the Hebrews: Wake Up Black America”—a film about modern-day Jews stealing the religion and identity of native Israelis, leading to the enslavement of Africans, who were brought.
To America – is a grenade thrown directly at the wave of anti-Semitic attacks on Jews that have been smoldering across the country recently, led by hip-hop artist Kanye West, most notoriously and brazenly. And if Irving won’t apologize for his cavalier “I’m just asking questions” routine or withdraw his support for the movie, it’s time for the Nets to take back his place on his basketball team.
I don’t say that lightly or without deep thought for what it means. My first instinct when this controversy bubbled up on Saturday was to put it in the same category of Irving bullshit that fueled other high-profile missteps like spying on the Flat Earth theory and denying a COVID-19 vaccine even though it was legally mandatory for him.
Most of last season’s games in New York. Silly, those stances were only disastrous for his reputation and the Nets’ chances of winning the game. And Irving has the right to freedom of speech and a set of beliefs, no matter how wacky or misinformed they may be. This is a potentially volatile area for the NBA or the Nets, which he did not say anything directly adversary to join. But then I watched Irving’s press conference and his tasty exchange with reporters after Saturday night’s Nets game.
Then I watched the movie he promoted—all three-plus hours of it—and came away with a different feeling about the range Irving crossed here. First, a disclaimer. I am Jewish, and the current climate in this country is appalling in ways I have never experienced before.
Whether being led by a celebrity with a large devoted following or streamed with a mild gesture during a Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville is hurtful and unnecessary in the mainstream of outright antisemitism. “I don’t live my life that way. I grew up in a melting pot of all races, white, black, red, yellow, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and you see how I live my life now.
I am not here to be divisive. I am in a unique position for the level of influence I have on my community and what I post does not mean I endorse everything that is being said or done Do post things for my people in my community and for people who are going to be really affected. Anyone who gets criticized, steer clear It wasn’t for them.
” Not only is he a cop-out, it makes me wonder whether Irving had even seen the movie he promoted or processed the blatant antisemitic tropes contained in it. I’m willing to give Irving the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t hate Jewish people, but much of the film’s material is derived directly from false narratives and easily disproved theories that people like the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan. has promoted. For decades inciting resentment for Jewish people within certain black communities.
At one point, the film even cites a purported quote from Adolf Hitler—which is, of course, fake—that “white Jews know that Negroes are Israel’s real children and Jewish blackmail to keep America’s secret.” Will do. America. They will extort America, their plan for world domination will not work if Negroes know who they are.” It cites the writings of Henry Ford, who may have been America’s most notorious anti-Semitism. And twice it quotes an essay entitled “The Hidden Tyranny”, first published in 1978 as a purported confession by Harold Wallace Rosenthal about how the Jewish people controlled the world through banking and the media. conspired to do.
The problem, of course, is that Rosenthal, a 28-year-old congressional ally who died in a terrorist attack in Turkey two years ago, would be a curious choice to uncover a bigger secret that an entire religion is hiding. The Anti-Defamation League has called the interview completely fabricated. Woven with language and DNA and all kinds of anthropological tracings of biblical folklore, much of the film focuses on diaspora and ancient populations of the Middle East and North Africa that don’t look like the whites or Europeans that represent much of the world.
We do. This is almost certainly true in the broadest sense of the Jewish population today and would not be problematic if that were the case. But it comes with a tough pivot, certainly blaming the history of difficulty.