Kareem Abdul Jabbar is Right: Why Don't Social Justice Warriors Care About Anti-Semitism?

I want to give props to Kareem Abdul Jabbar. There has been a noticeable and incredible hypocrisy when it comes to NFL and NBA players as it pertains to anti-semitism.

You remember when Malcolm Jenkins came out — the leader of the NFL Players Coalition — and was asked about Desean Jackson, he said anti-semitism was not the problem of his and it distracted from black-related problems.

This is utterly indefensible. We also had Dwayne Wade back Nick Cannon.

And Kareem Abdul Jabbar said you can’t only be opposed to racism when you are the victim. It’s not enough to only focus on issues of black racism and not be interested in anti-semitism or also in issues of racism in other parts of society.

I’ve got a radical idea that I think would fundamentally alter the way we talk about race in the country.

That idea is this: black people, white people, Asian people, and Hispanic people can all be racists.

The way we talk about racism in America today is only white perpetrators and only black victims.

We almost never even mention Hispanic or Asian people.

We almost never even consider the idea that idea that black people could be racist.

Every race has racists in it. This is a fact.

The goal should be for everyone to spend less time only worried about themselves and more time trying to guarantee the society as a whole is all working together — where all of us can be treated equally under the law and society as a whole.

This idea, that we have, in the social justice warrior community is that they aren’t paying attention or they may be racist themselves against Jewish people.

And when that hypocrisy is pointed out, no one wants to address it. This is a major flaw in the way we talk about race in America.

And I give credit to Kareem Abdul Jabbar. It is a very smart piece which analyzes that perspective from athletes that there needs to be consistency of application.

You can’t have Malcolm Jenkins saying that anti-semitism is not our problem and that racism and prejudice against Jews detract from larger issues.