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Comment by ciarannolan | Hacker News Reader

No explanation necessary. It's the same old racism, but with a new 2020 twist: it's ok as long as it's racism against people we don't like.

Check out the recent spate of black athletes and celebrities posting openly anti-Semitic comments on social media (one directly (mis)quoting Hitler re: Jews) with zero repercussions.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2020/07/08/stephen...

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/jewish-leader...

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/9400472/i...

A really thoughtful piece about this by Kareem Abdul Jabbar here too:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-i...

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Zero repercussions? Nick Cannon lost his job and board position, and rightfully so [0]. Do not misconstrue the consequences - people will be fired or blacklisted for these anti-Semitic comments, and that's frankly a good thing.

[0] https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/entertainment/nick-cannon-via...

You're right that Nick Cannon is the exception. (edit: actually, you're wrong: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/16/nick-cannon...)

How about Ice Cube, Stephen Jackson, DeSean Jackson, Dwyane Wade, etc. and all those who supported the comments or brushed them off as "speaking their truth" or some other nonsense? They will face no consequences, because, again, racism is deemed okay in the current climate as long as it's aimed correctly.

Can you even _imagine_ the absolute chaos that would rein if a white NBA player started quoting David Duke to millions of followers, and a bunch of white NBA players and commentators supported them?

> They will face no consequences...

> Can you even _imagine_ the absolute chaos that would rein if...

I think everyone has their own media diet, influenced partly by their own choices and partly by algorithms. Your media diet likely has a huge effect on whose reactions you see and thus which reactions you perceive to be "brushing something off" or "absolute chaos."

True - I need to keep in mind that Twitter isn't "everyone".

But at the same time, these are well known public figures broadcasting openly racist and anti-Semitic thoughts to millions of people.

I'm not completely sure what to make of it.

Even within Twitter there will be a vast difference. If a liberal quotes a conservative tweet in disapproval you will see replies from liberals also expressing disapproval. But if another conservative quotes the same tweet in approval, you’ll see a bunch of conservatives replying in approval. It would be incorrect to conclude either “everyone realized that tweet was terrible” and “everyone agreed with that tweet.”

It’s amusing that Cannon got fired for anti-semitism, which he wasn’t actually guilty of, and not racism for saying white people are less, and are closer to animals.

His full quote for people to judge for themselves:

>“When you have a person that has the lack of pigment, the lack of melanin, they know that they will be annihilated,” Mr. Cannon said during the June podcast. “So therefore, however they got the power, they have the lack of compassion — melanin comes with compassion, melanin comes with soul. We call it soul — we’re soul brothers and sisters — that’s the melanin that connects us, so the people that don’t have [melanin] are a little, and I’m going to say this carefully, are a little less.”

>“They’re acting out of fear, they’re acting out of low self-esteem, they’re acting out of a deficiency,” he continued. “So therefore, the only way that they can act is evil. They have to rob, steal, rape, kill in order to survive. So then, these people who didn’t have what we have — and when I say we, I speak of the melanated people — they had to be savages. They had to be barbaric because they’re in these Nordic mountains. They’re in these rough environments. They’re acting as animals, so they’re the ones that are actually closer to animals. They’re the ones that are actually the true savages.”

Thanks. Yes, again, he did NOT get fired for this.

But he started talking about conspiracy theories relating to the illuminati and the Rothschilds (who, yes, happen to be jewish) and how they have all the power. Nothing derogatory or about jewish people in general that I saw.

Every single headline on my news page says he was anti-semetic and completely ignored the blatant racism. What fun times we are in.

yeah definitely there were zero repercussions and nick cannon definitely didn't lose his job.

??? what are you talking about.

Ice Cube, Stephen Jackson, DeSean Jackson, Dwyane Wade, etc.

If you want to do this accounting, I'm really here for you.

Also, he didn't lose his job here: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/16/nick-cannon...

i have no idea what you are talking about. folks are being held accountable, you said they weren't. are you saying that it's not happening fast enough for your liking? you were straight up wrong.

No, I was straight up right. Look at my edit:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/16/nick-cannon...

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