By: Mansa JK
In the last couple weeks two prominent members of the black community have been "canceled" by main stream media and big corporations because of perceived Anti-Semitic rhetoric. Music Icon and fashion designer Kanye West and NBA superstar and philanthropist Kyrie Irving are the two bucks on display.
Mr. West, has been ostracized for his comments made a few weeks ago when he talked about Jewish people running media and the music industry and the trickle down effects of their control on the black community. The comments resulted in his major backers, such as, Adidas terminating their contracts with him costing him billions.
Mr. Irving, on the other hand didn't say anything, but he did tweet, and these days a tweet is worth a thousand words. In his tweet - the Allstar point guard for the Brooklyn Nets - shared a link to a controversial movie called "Hebrew to Negroes: Wake Up Black America". The movie in questions asked some questions and made statements that are viewed in the Jewish community as Anti-Semitic. Because of the tweet Kyrie has since been suspended from his team for at least 5 games without pay and Nike has ended their partnership with the New Jersey native.
Now comes the problem for the black community.
The major issue is the "buck-breaking" method in which the two figures have been subjected to. Take Kyrie for example, whom has already apologized, but his apology has not been recognized as sufficient enough for the powers that be. He has been giving a laundry list of things to do in order to be reinstated to his respective team. That list goes as followed: Apologize and condemn the movie, give a $500K donation to anti-hate causes, go through sensitivity and Anti-Semitic training, meet with ADL, Jewish leaders, and meet with Brooklyn Nets owner, Joe Tsai, to demonstrate understanding.
These demands come from a man who is in his own human rights controversy because he is alleged of financing genocide in China through the company that made him a billionaire, Alibaba.
The problem is putting black men on the chopping block every time they speak out, or in this case, tweet out values and views that aim to enlighten their people on their history. I think we can all agree that black people history has been stolen from them and white washed all over the globe. So, to punish people for actively searching for their stolen truths is a problem. A major problem.
Kyrie said before being suspended that he didn't agree with all of the points made in the documentary, but that doesn't dismiss everything in the 3 hour long documentary. Besides that what happened to freedom of speech, which we grant to the KKK, a terrorist organization that to this day the government won't recognize as a terrorist group. What about the freedom of speech we allow Fox News and OAN and the constant lies they spew on a daily basis.
This is the problem we have as a people with how these two black men have been treated when we have hourly examples of men and women of other ethnicities not being held to the same standard.
Why has there been no gripe with Amazon and Jeff Bezos when this documentary has been on their streaming platform generating money since 2018? Now it is problem when a well off black man with a following tweets it out. Come on!
The things these two men have been saying are not new at all. There have been plenty of other respected black leaders like, Malcom X, Louis Farrakhan, and others whom have been saying this for decades. The heads of the major music and media companies that constantly show and glorify the negative aspects of our community are Jewish, that is just a fact. The heads of these banking systems that constantly find ways to move the goal post for black people are of anglo-saxon and jewish decent. The story of the black jew has been told to me way before the this documentary or the book was even in production.
Our beef has nothing to do with who these two men are, but how they are being treated. How they are being told, rather boldly, don't have an opinion, just entertain. This feels like a public lashing of old. Take the strongest of them and break him/her as an example to the rest of them. That is why we are standing with Kyrie.
Comments