Condemn Ideas, Not People: A Different Approach to Confronting Antisemitism

The recent controversies around antisemitic statements made by athletes DeSean Jackson and Stephen Jackson, and entertainment mogul Nick Cannon have raised troubling questions about how to address antisemitism, especially now that it is on the rise. There is a clear need to build much stronger connections between the fight to end antisemitism and the antiracist movement for Black lives. Too often these are parallel tracks, sometimes even at odds with one another, rather than the unified struggle they can and should be.

As NBA hall-of-famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pointed out, “Recent incidents of anti-Semitic tweets and posts from sports and entertainment celebrities are a very troubling omen for the future of the Black Lives Matter movement, but so too is the shocking lack of massive indignation…we expected more passionate public outrage. What we got was a shrug of meh-rage.”

While the public response has been disappointingly underwhelming, the institutional response has been somewhat stronger. DeSean Jackson was suspended by the Eagles. Nick Cannon’s relationship with ViacomCBS was terminated. In the wake of apologies and actions that demonstrated the desire to learn, there aren’t many calls for harsher measures against those two individuals, and that is a positive development. More important…