OPINION: Nike Pumps-and-Dumps Black Men That Are Free Thinkers Over So-Called "Anti-Semitic" Comments/Content?

The hypocrisy is real

Photo by Tyrell James on Unsplash

I've been sick for the past few days so pardon my sporadic engagement, my energy level has been low. I hate feeling this sick. My body hurts, and if I lay down, I don’t think going back to sleep would be hard; I’d need to turn my mind off. But it’s on this morning. WOW… weird stuff happening in the United States of Socialism these days. Divisive rhetoric and reactions seem ongoing. How can you not talk about race when it’s in your face and the discussions lack full context and understanding, and you have people that buck dance around reality to create a universal truth that devalues personal experience and beliefs?

So here we go again, and this one doesn’t make sense. I get why Kanye got backlash and public labeling. He came in hot with his rhetoric and was not scrupulous about presenting his grievances with the industries that he chose to do business with that may or may not have been dominant led by Jewish people. BUT…. Nike suspends its relationship with Kyrie Irving for "anti-semitism". HUH! He posted a link to a documentary that SOME find offensive, SOME OTHERS believe to be true to their heritage, and many are now curious about. My eldest sister's Father's family are hardworking communal Black Hebrew Israelites. They operate much the same as White Jewish individuals that pride themselves on being communal in kind as well. Malcolm X who was also considered Anti-Semitic spoke of Blacks supporting their kind like Jewish people. Kanye West recently confessed that he was "jealous" of how Jewish people coordinate and stick together. Amidst the outrage, a compliment is being missed. Facts are facts, and in the words of a modern famous Jewish guy “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” - Ben Shapiro

I do take issue with how these conversations started and the generalizations about Blacks and Jewish people that have come out of them. I’m not going to jump on the “Anti-semitism label train” My issue with SUMMARIZING Jewish people collectively one way just like any other group, is that there are fallacies to the generalizations. Jewish people are communal, yes, but some are open to doing business and working with people who are not Jewish; even if the perpetual stereotype that they don’t persist.

As I have often said, my content is based on observations of recurring patterns and personal experiences.

When I was in college, my passion was video and film production. I worked at my school full-time, so I had an opportunity to interact with a variety of professors from different walks of life. One of the Professors that I became friends with was a Jewish young man that taught in our construction management program. He and I would talk often about organic human topics. He seemed to like my thought process and creativity and supported my endeavors when he could. One time, he let me utilize his children in one of my college competition videos. His kids were little, and I won the competition using them and my little cutie. A few years later, he called me and asked if I could create a fun video and montage for his son's and nephew's bar mitzvah. He said when he and his brother were talking about it, I was the first that came to mind. I was honored. That was a fun experience.

Don't ask me to get creative on a bar mitzvah video, we are going to keep it engaging the entire time and I promise the mother and I will narrow those montages of pictures down. LOL. The video was a hit. The mothers were in tears and were happy with the product. I was getting texts during the showing at the event from the dads, they were happy. "Angie, people love it! It was funny and engaging, and I loved how you worked the pictures in the video” was the feedback.

They referred me to other Jewish families. I got out of business after a bad experience with one family, but I never let that isolated experience inspire me to judge all Jewish people equally. There are good and bad people in all groups and that is a fact; I don’t care how victimized a group’s history has been; there exist universal ASSHOLES from all groups. My first freelance video gig was with a Jewish family. They were kind and gave me complete creative freedom and access to their homes and children. I respect their culture of defining a boy as a man at 13 and setting his mind to work in line with the legacy of the family. That is honorable and should be emulated across groups, especially within the Black segment.

The socially correct thing to do is to be specific. What angers Jewish people about that documentary? Which group of Jewish individuals is Kanye referring to? Which group of Jewish people were actually hurt by Kyrie sharing the link to a documentary that suggests a “shared heritage/lineage”?

I denounce generalizations of all groups in this nation, but let’s not pretend that stereotypes aren’t being projected about each group in the mainstream media. They manufacture the ideas and the bias. The rhetoric that has been introduced in the American conversation the last month has once again fostered emotional irrationality and not understanding. This time, a rift has been created between Black People and Jewish People. I think it would be valuable for Jewish people that are bold enough to say “Hey, maybe we should go easy on just slinging the anti-semitic label around.” Kyrie Irving holds beliefs about himself and his heritage that some Jewish people disagree with. The media machine has been religious about controlling the narrative and perpetuating the narrative that Kyrie’s beliefs of being an Afro-Semite are anti-semitic and are patently offensive and threatening to Jewish people. I could get Kanye getting the backlash that he did. His methods were wrong and full of emotions that did not serve his message well.

Let's stop acting like Black Hebrew Israelites don't exist. Seriously, I don't know the extent of their rhetoric because honestly, I don't care who feels they are the rightful anything on this Earth. We are all God's children and we will be sorted according to our deeds, not our heritage on Yahweh’s Great Day of Vengence and Purification.

The very existence of the Black Hebrew Israelites organization is a threat to SOME European Jewish individuals that really do think that Blacks are beneath them and think it is absurd that they would stake claim to their heritage. Any mention or support of the organization or its rhetoric merits being labeled anti-semitic, getting economically sanctioned, re-educated, or castrated from society. What was specifically anti-semitic about the documentary? What aspects of the content were patently offensive against Jewish people? No one is saying that.

Keeping Blacks ignorant and afraid has always been a mechanism of control. That’s why to an extent, I don’t feel bad for people that buy into fame and choose to be a puppet to a master that is not them. These Sambos are glorified before Blacks for us to worship and but also to keep us on code to the constant narratives and projects of our experience that keep us thinking marginalized and powerless; especially during certain times. Kyrie is off-code. He’s speaking boldly about what HE believes. He posted something that was interesting to him and distributed by Amazon. He doesn’t seem to be telling anyone else what to believe, yet he merits persecution. Why exactly? I have not seen the documentary, but I am now curious to watch it and dissect it myself to understand how it might have offended certain Jewish individuals. It is likely Kyrie’s tweet was seen as a symbol of unity that could exist among Black people and a stand with Kanye; who managed to piss off a slew of people for 4 consecutive weeks. The mainstream called their army of retired sold-out Black men to seal Kanye’s and Kyrie’s fate and they happily complied for the sake of their own future gains and maybe for some, a chance to put on a dress again.

Nike has jumped on the bandwagon of making sure that Black men with power and influence stay in their place and on code with the narratives and storyline of the being of Black people in America. “Black Twitter” is raging that Black billionaires are silent or participating in what they believe to be a “Public Lynching” of Black men. Nike made money from Kanye and Kyrie using their names/likenesses to appeal to consumers interested in stereotypical aspects of Black culture like sports and hip-hop. They collaborate with artists for the same reason, even those that create art centered on criminalizing and victimizing Black people. Nike is seen in several gangster rap videos with no outrage about how the music and the projection impact Blacks negatively, so they have proven to be hypocrites, and are not as intolerant as they claim.

This attack on Black men is important. More of them are leaving the Democratic party and refusing to fall in line with perpetual narratives dictating how they should think about themselves and even function in America. The men will go back to the roots of being Republican or Independent. If the FBI didn’t take out Malcolm X, he would have been a face for Black Libertarians or Republicans today. If the FBI didn’t take out Fred Hampton, he’d be Libertarian still seeking to unify Blacks and concentrate their buying power on Black communities.← Which is a NO, NO to the powers that be. Black Wall Street proved that Blacks were intelligent and capable, and NON-Blacks didn’t like that. So beyond slavery, I can understand why some Black people in this nation are still pissed and feel entitled to reparations and a tax credit for the continuous attacks on their progress in America and ownership of their being.

This is just how I see things.