By Stanley Fritz

Welcome to the Un-Trashed Podcast, this spinoff from the regular newsletter was made to serve as a space for us to have expanded conversations on some of the topics written on the website.

In this episode, I discussed Kyrie Irving, Kanye West, and Anti-Semitism. For those of you who don’t know, Kanye has essentially imploded and lost at least half of his wealth after making multiple anti-semitic remarks on Twitter, and Instagram. As we speak, he has lost his Addidas deal, Gap deal, and music distribution. I have written extensively about Kanye so I won’t get too deep into it. Today we’re here to discuss the shit-storm that is Kyrie Irving.

Click here to listen to the podcast episode

For those of you who don’t know, Kyrie shared a link to the documentary film titled, “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” For those who are interested, The film claims Jesus was not Jewish and that different races are not equal, it claims that Jews control the media and claims of Jewish Satanic worship. You can find a full timeline of the controversy here.

The film includes quotes attributed to Hitler that appear to be fabricated, the movie also falsely attributes a quote to Harold Wallace Rosenthal about a Jewish conspiracy to control the media; the quote is from a fabricated interview with Rosenthal in the discredited pamphlet ‘’The Hidden Tyranny"

When Kyrie was pressed about the details of this movie and asked why he posted it, he refused to answer. Things took a turn for the worse when he got into a heated exchange with a reporter, and accused the press of “Making this bigger than what it was”

Since all of this went down, Kyrie has been suspended without pay for five days, lost his Nike deal, and was put on a six-step plan by the Brooklyn Nets that he must complete if he wants to return to the team.

I wanted to unpack this with y'all, so I brought on Leo Ferguson. Leo is the Director of Strategic Projects at Jews for Economic and Racial Justice, the Co-Founder of the Jews of Color Caucus, and works for the Black Jewish Liberation Collective.

This conversation covered a lot, if you're interested in learning more, take a look at some of the resources listed below:

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (2020)

Understanding Antisemitism: An Offering to Our Movement
Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, November 15, 2017

Black-Jewish Relations Industrial Complex
On The Nose podcast, Jewish Currents, February 17, 2022

Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism
Eric Ward, Political Research Associates, June 29, 2017

Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White
James Baldwin, The New York Times, April 9, 1967

Making Our Movements Stronger By Resisting Antisemitism
Dania Rajendra & Jonah S. Boyarin, Everyday Feminism, December 7, 2017

On “Black Antisemitism” and Antiracist Solidarity
Michael Richmond, New Socialist, July 30, 2020

Why Tamika Mallory Won’t Condemn Farrakhan
Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, March 11, 2018

The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Antisemitism Part of Our Movements
April Rosenblum, 2007

Alice Walker’s Terrible Anti-Semitic Poem Felt Personal — to Her and to Me
Nylah Burton, New York Magazine, December 28, 2018

Black Antisemitism Is Not Inherently “Left-Wing”
Rebecca Pierce, Jewish Currents, December 20, 2019

Why Trump — Not Jesus — is At the Heart of White Christian Love for Kanye
Andre Henry, Religion News Service, October 30, 2019

The Soros Myth
Dove Kent, Jewish Currents, October 11, 2018

Combating Antisemitism Is Core to the Progressive Project
Carinne Luck, The American Prospect, January 6, 2020

Kanye West’s hate speech awakens my ‘triple consciousness’ of being Black, Jewish and American
Kendell Pinkney, JTA, November 2, 2022