Sadly, we are not surprised by the double standards.
While people are being canceled for actions or opinions expressed some 20 years ago, a current NFL player can tweet out anti-Semitic quotes and not suffer a single consequence.
We’re talking about DeSean Jackson, a Philadelphia Eagle, who on Monday tweeted what he thought was an Adolf Hitler quote. Not surprisingly, considering the “source,” the words were pure anti-Semitic hate, accusing Jews of “suppressing the Negroes who are the true Children of Israel in order to secure world domination.”
That Hitler did not say these words should have been evident to Jackson, for when did Hitler ever express any sympathy toward black people? Indeed he believed they were subhuman and was irate at Jesse Owens’ victory at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That Jackson doesn’t seem to know this is a sad commentary on his knowledge of black history.
That aside, the wide receiver tweeted — in a positive way — a quote he attributed to Adolf Hitler — he who began WW II, the most deadly conflict in human history; he who gassed mentally disabled people; he who formulated a racist, deadly ideology and then pursued it, murdering millions of Jews and decimating European Jewry.
That the quote turned out to be fake doesn’t absolve Jackson of his anti-Semitism. Whether Hitler uttered the hateful words Jackson quoted, Jackson endorsed them to his over 900,000 followers! By doing so, he invited further anti-Semitic hate via comments endorsing his point of view.
Somehow, despite “quoting” the person regarded as being the personification of evil, Jackson gets away with an apology and the Eagles get away with a pathetic statement that revealed there would be no actual consequence for Jackson.
That’s humanity at the Philadelphia Eagles — a Jewish owned team!
That’s “tolerance” in the NFL.
That’s the double standard whose other side is the NFL falling over itself trying to prove its commitment to fighting anti-black racism.
But if the NFL is trying to project that it is serious about combatting racism and equality, it must bring the same energy and focus to all, including Jews.
Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News
