Rant #3,007: Gimme Little Sign

 

Another day, another level of stupidity perpetuated by Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets.
 
Irving said on Wednesday that since he opposes all forms of hate, he and the Nets will each donate $500,000 toward groups that work to eradicate it.
 
Irving thinks that his money will demonstrate that he takes responsibility for the negative impact on the Jewish community that was caused by his appearing to support an anti-Semitic work, and evidentially the Nets think the same way, too, by donating their money to this cause.
 
But as I pointed out yesterday, the Nets have had a long-standing problem with how to make the Jewish community—and the Jewish community in Brooklyn, in particular—feel welcome at Barclays Center, and money doesn’t heal all wounds.
 
“I oppose all forms of hatred and oppression and stand strong with communities that are marginalized and impacted every day,” Irving said in a joint statement with the Nets and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization which evidently has caved in to the Nets and Irving’s supposed apology. “I am aware of the negative impact of my post towards the Jewish community and I take responsibility.
 
“I do not believe everything said in the documentary was true or reflects my morals and principles. I am a human being learning from all walks of life and I intend to do so with an open mind and a willingness to listen.”
 
Nets General Manager Sean Marks said Tuesday that the Nets had been in discussions with the ADL on the proper way to respond to the fallout involving Irving, and that they and the WNBA’s New York Liberty would host a series of community conversations at Barclays Center in partnership with ADL and other national civil rights organizations and local community associations.
 
Look, you just know that the Nets and Irving met about this mess, and the Nets probably put some pressure on Irving to do something to heal this very wide wound.
 
Funny, one day he doesn’t back down on what he posted, and the very next day, he somehow becomes apologetic.
 
Did all this have anything to do with past NBA superstars like Kareem Abdul Jabber, Amare Stoudemire—himself a converted Jew--Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley demanding some action be taken against Irving, as well as ripping the NBA for doing nothing, on Tuesday’s national broadcast, which just happened to feature the Nets?
 
We will never know, but again, the NBA, its players, and its ownership, have said and done absolutely nothing related to this mess.
 
Again, the commissioner himself is Jewish, 14 of the owners are Jewish, and although just one of the players is Jewish, they should all stand in solidarity when things are good, and should do so when things are bad.
 
Things are bad now, and they are all mum.
 
This has brought up some other issues, including, as I mentioned earlier and yesterday, an obvious disconnect between the Nets and the Jewish community.
 
But it also brings up some other issues, too, which are painful to talk about, but must be addressed.
 
I don’t think that anti-Semitism is thought of as being as virulent as bias against other groups, simply because Jews through history have kind of brushed off such incidents and moved on from them more seamlessly than other groups have.
 
Remember, as I said yesterday, Jews are not looked at as an oppressed group by our own government, even as anti-Semitic incidents rise to disturbing levels.
 
Attacks against other acknowledged oppressed people get all the headlines, but attacks against Jews do not get the same amount of play, and I do believe that my own Jewish community is able to move on from these incidents, so if we can move on, why should anyone else be that concerned?
 
The media is part of this craziness … as I have brought up many times before, May is Jewish American Heritage Month, and it gets absolutely no coverage by the media, and I do mean no coverage at all, and certainly not as much as coverage of similar days for our Asian, Hispanic, black, and gay citizens.
 
And then we have what I look at as a total disconnect between younger blacks and their own history of working with Jews for the betterment of both groups.
 
Those of my age group remember Jews walking hand in hand with blacks during the Civil Rights era, working to make equality not a pipe dream but a reality of being an American.
 
That was in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, and I do believe that younger blacks look at thief era as almost ancient history, having little to do with them.
 
They do not realize that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a champion not just for blacks, but for Jews. He was a firm supporter of Israel, and he worked with Jewish leaders here to ensure that all people were, in fact, created equal.
 
I do not believe that many younger blacks understand the ties that bind blacks and Jews together, and thus, the NBA—with a very high black player population, most in their mid-20s—does not get this tie either, and thus, does not understand that anti-Semitism goes against the grain of not only Jews, but their very own existence.

Adding to this is we have virulent anti-Semites like Malcolm X, Lewis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Black Lives Matter being made into folk heroes by the media, and younger kids believe this tripe and the beliefs that these people and organizations espouse.
 
So yes, Irving and the Nets put their money where their mouths should be, and everything is now hunky dory in the NBA—
 
Or is it?
 
And the greater question is why is there is complete disconnect in our American society between Jews and younger blacks, and between Jews and the rest of our country, and what can be done to fix that chasm before it gets any deeper?