Thursday, March 28, 2024

Lakeith Stanfield Responds to Anti-Semitism Controversy: ‘I Do Not Support Louis Farrakhan’

EURweb.com

*Lakeith Stanfield is speaking out once more about the backlash over him moderating a Clubhouse room in which users allegedly engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric.

We previously reported, according to the Daily Beast, Stanfield never said anything hateful about Jewish people but following criticism for joining the chat, he apologized and appeared in another Clubhouse session moderated by a panel of Jewish educators. 

The “Judas and the Black Messiah” star further addressed the issue during a new interview with The Daily Beast, during which he denounced Louis Farrakhan, saying “I definitely don’t align myself with Louis Farrakhan, I don’t stand by him,” he said. “Any kind of hate speech, I vehemently reject. That’s not up for debate, hate is not up for debate.

Per Complex, Stanfield served as moderator during a discussion on Clubhouse earlier this month, where participants reportedly compared Jewish people to Satanists and termites. Some users also praised Hitler and noted that Jews financed the slave trade. 

Stanfield told the Daily Beast that he was not familiar with the teachings of Farrakhan (who the dominant society considers anti-Semitic), so the actor was intrigued by the clubhouse chatroom. “I was curious to kind of educate myself more on the topic,” he said.

READ MORE: LaKeith Stanfield Joins Jewish Clubhouse Chat After Anti-Semitism Backlash

LaKeith Stanfield
PHOTO: RYAN PFLUGER

Ari Inger, director of the Creative Community of Peace, described the room to The Daily Beast as the “worst vile anti-Semitism that you can imagine being spewed and the Jewish community trying to defend [themselves] to no avail.” Inger added, “It was an extremely troubling room and an extremely disturbing amount of anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, from Jews running the slave trade, to Jews controlling the slave trade, to running all the banks, to running all the studios — you name it it was in there.”

“I was much more interested in sort of uncovering this information, so it wasn’t about Louis Farrakhan per se,” Stanfield said. “Me going into the room, it was more about trying to uncover more information about these things that he said or didn’t say, because I wasn’t quite clear on it.”

He added, “It was so chaotic in the room, there were a couple of outbursts. … I think I remember someone saying something about ‘All Jews run the world’ or something kind of crazy, and that was one of the people I put down in the audience. But for the most part, one outburst would happen and then the conversation would kind of go back into a normal rhythm.”

At one point, a Jewish woman called him out for entering the chatroom. 

“I was really caught off guard, because first of all, I didn’t host the room,” Stanfield said. “But I also didn’t feel that the conversation was really headed in a direction that was completely attacking Jewish people. At that point, I thought there were still people saying their points and then other people saying their points. So, I explained to her that I know that this is a very tense and emotional conversation to have, and I just want everyone to have the time to be able to engage in conversation. So, that was part of me trying to moderate this conversation that was happening.”

Stanfield wants to make clear that he is not anti-Semitic. “Let me just make it clear: I don’t support any form of hatred whatsoever, any kind of anti-Semitic statements that were made, anybody that tried to single out a group of people and make up allegations and say crazy things about them or their people? I don’t support that in any way whatsoever. Never did, never will,” he said.

Meanwhile, the cancel culture movement dug up a video that Stanfield posted on YouTube in 2013 titled “Swastikas and Bones,” which allegedly features him rapping with a swastika superimposed on his forehead.

“I actually forgot about it,” Stanfield said. “Honestly, it wasn’t something that I did for a public viewership, like I have now. I did it a long time ago before I had even done anything. So, I kind of forgot it existed really.”

He admitted, “It was stupid and that was dumb. That was a terrible mistake for me to even try and use it, even to try to get across a point that had nothing to do really with hatred. So, I’d never do that again. I’d never use that symbol again.”

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