A sentence that fans have learnt goes many ways; depending on whether he!s on the court or off.
On October 27th, the 30-year-old Nets point guard took to Twitter and posted a link to “Hebrews to Negroes”, a Black Hebrew Israelite documentary that has now been confirmed to be anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League. The ideas in the documentary rapidly came under fire online for its derogatory misinformation regarding xenophobic tropes, Islamophobia, misogyny, and obviously,
anti-semitism.
In a vapid and ever-changing twitter sphere, Kyrie!s actions had staying power.
He had done something wrong, and continually failed to understand what that something was. When asked for a statement during a post-game interview just two days after the tweet’s release, Kyrie chose to double down. Stating, “in 2022 history is not meant to be hidden from anybody … it’s not about educating yourself on what semitism is (or) what anti-semitism is”.
But Kyrie, that is quite literally what it is about. Because at its root, this was an ignorance issue first.
Kyrie was misinformed by the documentary, and he represents other Americans that are of that group. The following turmoil from the Jewish community however, understandably comes from Kyrie!s ignorance that now appears far more intentional. This confirmed not only by the palpable uproar in the days post-tweet, but also by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt choosing not to accept Kyrie’s 500 thousand dollar donation to “eradicate hate and intolerance”.
This is not to say that athletes should no longer be allowed to voice their opinions on issues that are labelled as sensitive.
For comparison!s sake, Meyers Leonard, another player in the league rightfully came under fire in March of last year for uttering an anti-Semitic slur on his Twitch stream. The 30-year-old Center claimed not to know its origin though, prompting Jewish NFL Wide Receiver Julian Edelman to post an open letter to the athlete.
It is what’s in the letter, that still rings true a year later.
“Casual ignorance is harder to combat and has greater reach, especially when you command great influence”, said Edelman on his public instagram page.
At the same time though, I am almost glad that it was Kyrie who posted the tweet a year later.
This was not just another goofy hot-take from the athlete on the earth being flat. But his conclusions on that subject were heavily influenced by bad actors on the web, and that is how we find ourselves here today. In a 2018 appearance on the JJ Reddick Podcast discussing his flat earth beliefs, Kyrie himself states:
“When I actually said it though, I had been watching a whole lot of Instagram videos.”
To quote Edelman once again, “Hate is like a virus. Even accidentally, it can rapidly spread”.
This is why it is important that we categorize this societally not as a “free speech” issue, but a larger issue within facts vs harmful misinformation. People are clearly being radicalized into fringes, both by lies and hateful rhetoric that we first saw spread in chat-rooms on 4chan and Reddit. These beliefs have spread past their echo-chambers and only gotten easier to fall into, sometimes quite literally on accident through short-form content algorithms on TikTok, Reels and Youtube. On top of this, divisive Web 2.0 videos often also use dominant cultural elements to rouse the masses (eg. there has been a misrepresentation of who God!s chosen people are), creating concrete forms of real harm.
And when a person of huge influence spreads this content to millions of fans thereby multiplying the harm, there is only so much that donations, fact-checking warnings, and apologies can do.
Effectively creating a less accepting, unsafe, and simply worse space to live in for everyone.
Though it is beneficial and/or correct that the NBA chose to take action against Kyrie!s decisions, it is also essential that we learn where else to draw these lines online in order to create a safer space for the future. Even now, Amazon still continues to sell Dalton Jr.’s work on their platform, on paper-back, hard-cover, video, or on Audible, in case you want your anti-semitism on-the-go.
The real issue is that there are many more Kyries out there, and as these internet avenues continue to become harder to navigate, many more will emerge with even worse ideas without intervention from the corporations at the helm.
So to Amazon, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram: I think Kyrie just passed it.
The ball is in your court.