Former NBA player Stephen Jackson – like DeSean Jackson, Ice Cube and Nick Cannon – has recently spread anti-Semitic messages.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke up against the anti-Jewish rhetoric. And so has Charles Barkley.
Which drew a strong rebuke from Stephen Jackson.
TNT:
Barkley:
Listen, DeSean Jackson, Stephen Jackson, Nick Cannon, Ice Cube. Man, what the hell are y’all doing? Y’all want racial equality. We all do. I don’t understand how insulting another group helps our cause. And the only person who called y’all on it was Kareem. We can’t allow Black people to be prejudiced, also. Especially if we’re asking for white folks to respect us, give us economic opportunity and things like that. I’m so disappointed in these men. I don’t understand how you beat hatred with more hatred. That stuff should never come up in your vocabulary, and it should never come up in your heart. I don’t understand it. I’m never gonna accept it. And I’m asking you guys. I’m begging you guys, man. You guys are famous. You’ve got a platform. We’ve got to do better, man. I want allies. I don’t want to alienate anybody. And to take shots at the Jewish race, the white race, I just don’t like it because it’s not right. And I had to call them on it because it’s really — it’s really been on my heart.
Jackson (warning: profanity):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCwdYRSlOSf/
Charles Barkley, speak on what you know. Don’t stop letting people put a battery in your back to say certain s— that you don’t even know what you’re talking about. I know what I said. So, keep my name out your mouth. However you feel, I honestly don’t give a f—. But that don’t stop nothing I got going on. I’m out here with the real people, the people that’s really suffering, caring about my people. You dig what I’m saying? That’s what I’m doing. So, to Charles Barkley, I could give a f— how you feel. And that’s on me to you, since you upset with motherf—ers. We don’t give a f— what you’re upset with. I know I don’t. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. The people supporting me. The people standing with me while y’all been sitting on TV rubbing y’all fat-ass bellies. Y’all got me f—ed up. Yeah, I’m going to reply. Ain’t nobody else going to say nothing. But y’all keep that same energy when y’all see me, too.
Jackson has been in the streets leading protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Barkley has used his media platform to push for equality. If Jackson wants to criticize Barkley’s methods, that’s his right.
But Jackson has also made his slogan, “Love for all who have love for all.”
How does Jackson’s response to Barkley fit that mission?
