Dave Hannigan: The day of the anti-Semitic sons of bitches is upon us

Viewers of CBS’s NFL Today, a preview show ahead of the traditional afternoon gridiron fare, were kind of startled last Sunday when James Brown, the avuncular host, stared solemnly into the camera and treated them to a one minute and 44 second monologue.

Rather than holding forth on the travails of the elderly Tom Brady or some other pressing sporting matter, he railed eloquently about the rise of anti-Semitism in the country. Making no specific reference to the league he has covered with distinction for more than three decades, Brown delivered a note-perfect soliloquy that captured just how rancid things have become in this country of late.

“Folks, hate is a disease,” he said. “It is a virus that spreads and kills. Now, to cast doubt on, or state definitively, that the Holocaust did not happen, that’s as hurtful and wrong as saying the lynching of black people didn’t happen or that being enslaved is a choice.

“To perpetuate hurtful and false narratives, to refuse to disavow bigoted messages, and to fail to take responsibility when one’s actions and words inflict harm, is simply unacceptable. Words do matter. Especially when coming from highly visible people.”

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Brown didn’t mention Kanye West, the rapper/shoe maven, or Kyrie Irving, the Brooklyn Nets’ point guard, by name. He didn’t have to. Everybody knew who he was talking about because those kindred spirits have dominated the national conversation for weeks now.

West repeatedly spewed hatred against Jews across various outlets until it finally started to adversely impact his commercial interests, even if Adidas took way too long to cut ties with him.

Cancelled: Is there any way back for Kanye West?

Listen | 22:42

Kanye West has arguably suffered one of the most spectacular downfalls in contemporary culture. Brands like Adidas, Balenciaga and JP Morgan have severed ties with the 45 year-old after an anti-Semitic tirade in October. With his music and fashion empire lying in ruins, Irish Times columnist Finn McRedmond argues the ‘tortured genius’ trope allowed him to get away with his outrageous behaviour for far too long.

Irving used social media to promote a book and movie that are blatantly anti-Semitic and, among other disgusting tropes, deny the Holocaust. Their mutual antics and outsized influence have sparked an inevitable rise in inflammatory rhetoric and behaviour.

The Goyim Defense League hung banners saying “Kanye is Right!” on an overpass above Interstate 405 in Los Angeles and raised their arms in a Nazi salute at passersby.

After a college-football game between University of Florida and University of Georgia at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, somebody projected “Kanye was right about the Jews!” onto the electronic noticeboard on one side of the stadium.

[ Finn McRedmond: Why did we put up with Kanye West for so long? ]

At the University of Tennessee, flyers were posted printing the hoary old canard that 78 per cent of slave owners in America were Jews. And synagogues in New Jersey were placed on heightened alert last Friday when the FBI received a credible threat of an imminent attack.

“Anti-Semitism is hate,” declared a television commercial that aired during the October 30th NFL game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets.

“Hate against Jews. For being Jewish. Recently many of you have spoken up. We hear you today. We must hear you tomorrow. There are less than 8 million Jewish people in this country. Fewer than are watching this game. They need you to add your voice.”

Paid for by Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots and founder of the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism, the ad concluded with the slogan #StandUpToJewishHate.

In an interview promoting his initiative, Kraft pointed out Jews make up just 2.2 per cent of America’s population yet are the victims of 57 per cent of hate crimes. In 2021 the Anti-Defamation League recorded 2,717 incidents of harassment, vandalism and violence against Jews, the highest number since they began keeping records in 1979.

“In the late 30s and 40s, what was going on in Germany is going on now in America,” said Kraft. “The Kanye West thing has brought it to a head. Doing this ad was a way to make non-Jewish people understand what’s happening. We need all people, not just Jews, to speak out . . . I hope that people who aren’t Jewish understand it’s in their interests, in all of our interests, to preserve the basic values of our country.”

We live in an age where so much deliberate misinformation, egregious lies and conspiracy theories besmirch the cultural landscape that otherwise decent people walk among us believing the earth is flat and birds are not real.

With twice as many followers on Twitter than there are Jews on earth, Kanye’s ravings played big among white nationalists and members of the Nation of Islam. Two extremes of the political spectrum found common ground in shared hatred of the most scapegoated people in history.

An avowed anti-vaxxer who was formerly a flat earther, it was Irving’s initial refusal to apologise for his tweet that earned him a five-game ban by the Nets, a club owned, it should be pointed out, by Joseph Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba, a company accused of supporting the ongoing genocide against the Uighurs in northwest China.

Nike, not squeaky clean either regarding exploitation of Chinese Muslim slave labour, also suspended its contract with him. Yet, at the time of writing, “Hebrews to Negroes – Wake Up Black America”, the book and movie he promoted, are still available on Amazon.

Visiting Ohrdruf Concentration Camp in April, 1945 and realising the scale of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, General Dwight D Eisenhower cabled his chief of staff to immediately fly journalists to the site. He wanted footage, photographs, and reportage of the horrors because he worried “the day will come when some son of a bitch will say this never happened”.

The day of the sons of bitches is upon us.