An open letter to Kanye (aka Ye) West and Kyrie Irving:
Congratulations, fellas, you’ve now shoved the door a little wider for bigots of all kinds to crawl from their hiding places and enter that poisonous American junkyard of bullies and haters.
You think the Jews, with 2 percent of the U.S. population, have too much power, do you? You think the Holocaust never happened, do you? You think your recent remarks aren’t adding to the growing chorus of mindless bigotry in America?
O, Ye, of little historical understanding.
Incidents of antisemitism are on a dramatic rise, and you guys have now added to the menace. That was you, Kyrie, standing by a film, “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up, Black America,” that denies the Holocaust.
And that was you, Ye, posting on Twitter that you would “go death con 3 on JEWISH people.” Gee, Ye, what bravery that took since you’ve only got twice as many Twitter followers as the entire world’s population of Jews.
Meanwhile, late last week, we had the FBI issue warnings of a “broad threat” to synagogues across New Jersey. In Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, running against Democrat Josh Shapiro, aligns himself with an antisemitic group and criticizes Shapiro for sending his children to a Jewish day school. In Los Angeles, bigots posted a sign over an interstate highway: “Kanye is right about the Jews.” Similar words were projected at a college football game in Jacksonville, Florida,
Here in Baltimore, we’ve got police standing guard outside synagogues whenever the faithful gather for Jewish holidays.
Maybe, if you guys knew a little about history, such a sight might give you a comparative glimmer of the terror felt in Black churches across the South, before you guys were born, during the most chilling of the last century’s civil rights struggles.
And maybe, if you paid serious attention to a little more history, you wouldn’t issue insane denials about the millions of Jews murdered in the Nazi horrors of World War II.
Lately, reasonable people of all races and religions have listened to one of your absurd defenses of those Holocaust denials: Oh, you were only repeating stuff originally posted by somebody else.
If that’s the case, here’s a question: If some bigot posted lies claiming that American slavery was all a myth, would you feel comfortable spreading such insanity, and watching as it slips into mainstream historical conversation, and claim you were only “re-posting”?
Fellas, if you think you selectively antagonized Jews and never considered the peripheral damage you’ve done to all vulnerable minorities — including your own — then you don’t know the nature of bigotry.
Anytime you slander some minority group, whether it’s religious or racial or ethnic, you give permission slips to bigots everywhere that it’s safe to attack the vulnerable.
Except, as you guys, Ye and Kyrie, have learned, there’s still enough revulsion toward bigotry that you’re paying a price. It’s costing you money, it’s costing you fans, and it might even cost one of you a basketball career.
What’s worse, though, is that your language, and your lies, have joined the chorus of haters and bullies. And, the louder such language gets, the easier it gets to aim its bigotry at all kinds of marginalized minorities.
Michael Olesker’s latest book, “Boogie: Life on A Merry-Go-Round,” was recently published by Apprentice House. It’s the life story of Baltimore legend Leonard “Boogie” Weinglass, an original “Diner” guy who grew up to create the Merry-Go-Round clothing chain and contribute millions to charity.
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