Instead of Outrage, Meh-Rage Toward Anti-Semitism in Sports and Hollywood
New introduction and perspective to my 2020 article
New Introduction, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 2021
When I wrote this article 16 months ago, the country was in the middle of daily Black Lives Matter demonstrations that became the largest protest movement in the history of the United States. Between 15 and 26 million Americans took to the streets to justifiably march against the systemic racism that manifested itself in a nationwide rash of unarmed Black men and women being killed by police. I was proud that so many Americans took to the streets to express their support of the Black community.
But at the same time, I saw that anti-Semitic hate crimes had risen to its highest point in recent history. A report from 2018 had counted at least 4.2 million anti-Semitic tweets shared or re-shared over a twelve-month period. I also noticed that some prominent African Americans were also indulging in online anti-Semitism. This bothered me the most because it makes no sense that members of a marginalized group that had to endure centuries of cruelty would then be hateful toward another group. Worse, they were using the same baseless, pseudo-science, and crazy conspiracy theories to justify their bias that their oppressors use against them.
In the article, I criticize Ice Cube for some anti-Semitic tweets. After the article was published, he responded that he was saddened that I hadn’t contacted him personally because we know each other. But sometimes I have to separate my private life and relationships when I’m examining bigger issues. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to comment sincerely on social issues.
I’m reprinting the article here because nothing much has changed. Anti-Semitism continues to rise with the help of GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook posts that suggest wildfires in California were caused by lasers from space financed by Jews. Last March, Meyers Leonard, a reserve center for the Miami Heat, was suspended in March 2021 and fined $50,000 by the NBA for using an anti-Semitic slur as well as a sexist vulgarity while playing a video game online. His influence was shared with millions of others who were also playing and who saw the recorded clip online.
The evil isn’t in the systemic racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and anti-LQBTQ+, it’s in the inability to use reason and critical thinking in forming opinions about people. Prejudice is easy because it’s brainwashed into a person. It’s our default setting. Thinking is hard because you have to actually research facts and those facts may lead you away from what your friends and family believe. Most people choose to belong rather than think for themselves. They prefer the blue pill.
But that’s not the kind of people we want to be, nor is it the kind of country we want to live in.