Hours before another Brooklyn Nets loss on Thursday, noted “free-thinker” and basketball player Kyrie Irving took to Twitter to boost a movie and book, Hebrews to Negroes, stuffed with antisemitic tropes.
via: Yahoo! Sports
Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving took to Twitter once again Saturday morning, this time to address a previous offensive tweet.
Irving garnered significant backlash Thursday when he shared a link to a documentary called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” based on a book of the same name by Ronald Dalton Jr.
— Hélà (@KyrieIrving) October 27, 2022
I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs. The “Anti-Semitic” label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday. I embrace and want to learn from all walks of life and religions.
Hélà???
— Hélà (@KyrieIrving) October 29, 2022
“I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs,” Irving wrote, referring to a belief in all religions. “The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday.”
He signed the tweet “Hélà,” his Lakota name, which means “Little Mountain.” Irving’s late mother was a member of the tribe and lived on the reservation until her adoption at a young age. His late grandmother and great-grandparents also have ties to the reservation.
After sharing the documentary, Irving tweeted “now let me get ready for this business date I have tonight” and “The Light is beginning to Dawn,” bringing heightened scrutiny in the wake of rapper Kanye West’s blatantly antisemitic comments.
Irving is a self-proclaimed “free thinker,” who has previously made headlines for sharing conspiracies about a “new world order,” flat earth and the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to Rolling Stone, the documentary Irving shared puts forward “ideas in line with more extreme factions of the Black Hebrew Israelites, which have a long history of misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and especially antisemitism.”
On Friday, Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai expressed public disappointment in Irving, calling the movie “full of anti-semitic disinformation.” He also expressed the desire to sit and talk about the issue with the point guard and remind him that “it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation. I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.
— Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) October 29, 2022
The Nets also released a statement.
“The Brooklyn Nets strongly condemn and have no tolerance for the promotion of any form of hate speech. We believe that in these situations, our first action must be open, honest dialogue. We thank those, including the [Anti Defamation League], who have been supportive during this time.”
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