Anti-Semitic reporters were deeply confused when NBA player Kyrie Irving confronted them on their racism and erasure of Jewish people. Kyrie is called a fascist for a couple of reasons. Last year he refused to work in solidarity with all New York workers who could not work because of vaccination status. He believes in universal love. The left, including myself, could learn a lot from his definition of universal love.
As an aside, my embrace of vaccine mandates was my darkest day as a leftist. I wasn’t alone but I will take complete responsibility for my mistakes. What an awful thing to promote. To throw people out of their livelihood. I want to apologize to all those hurt by my words and I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all those who called me out on it. You made me better and you made society better.
The left does have to account for why we did not side with the working class. However, one thing I will not be doing as many have is to declare that I am no longer a leftist. I don’t blame the left for what I said. I take full responsibility. The left has always been the place for positive and radical change and it continues to be. To abandon the leftist project is to give up on changing the world. To all those who have stuck it out amidst divisive times, I thank you too.
Kyrie was not suspended for sharing a Holocaust-denying documentary. We all have shared the wrong thing online but if people wanted an explanation that’s their right. I am trying to follow his lead as he too claimed full responsibility for sharing that documentary online and he says he disagrees with most of it.
Kyrie was suspended for a different and fascinating reason. Holocaust denial was okay with the NBA. What was not okay with them was Kyrie stating radical unity between Jewish and Black people. In response to reporters willfully ignoring his pleas to acknowledge the history of slaughter of Black people in the United States Kyrie stated the following taboo: “How can I be anti-Semitic when I know where I come from?”
This was radical for an intersectional reason that triggered white Christians (or those who identify as such) everywhere. Kyrie was saying two things. Firstly that Christians come from Jewish people. Secondly that the people at the origin were not white. Including Jesus, the dark-skinned Jew. White Christians couldn’t hear that they came from Brown Jews. Kyrie was quickly suspended for at least 5 games.
Is it surprising that the woke NBA suspended Kyrie Irving? No, it’s not. They were a key part of the plot to halt the proletarian revolution led by Black people in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Some grumpy leftists dismiss this moment because a few leaders of Black Lives Matter were corrupt. This always happens. But look around. The revolt was proletarian in nature and it was radical.
The problem that is raised in good faith is why didn’t it last in its most intense and revolutionary state? Partly because the NBA and Obama stopped it but also because we don’t read anymore and we didn’t anticipate the tactics of suppression of said movement. Yes I’m serious. In the press conference that got Kyrie canceled, he told the press about the threat of Black America reading, echoing Malcolm X. They nearly shit their pants.
Malcolm X never feared any man but he became a threat to the system when he educated himself in prison. Today we are like young Malcolm. We are rightly anger but we lack the understanding necessary to apply it. Throughout the history of the United States, it has been the Black community that has led the most radical threats to power and all of them (against all wishes) armed themselves with education.
The CRT oppressed by Republicans is only a small part of the story. The liberals and Democrats are just as interested in suppressing radical thought and radical love for all those oppressed. Any person who preaches love for all people regardless of not only their race and religion but also their ideology is the largest threat.
This is my trouble with the left today. We seem to be divided between tailing the Republicans and Democrats. The Jimmy Dore Left tails the Republicans and accepts people of all ideologies but not of all identity groups. The Sam Seder Left tails the Democrats and accepts people of all identities but not all ideologies. The best of our historical left radicals (mostly Black) actually avoided this and preached universal unconditional love. This was partly out of sincere conviction but also partly because of strategy.
I will again apologize because I too have fallen into this divisiveness by condemning the right-wing working class. We used to be better than this and it wasn’t that long ago. Before Trump we sided with the so-called deplorables against Hillary Clinton. However, we made errors before Trump too. Before Trump we didn’t side enough with the minorities against the ruling class and we dismissed them as identity politics. We did give rise to Trump in this way, and this deserves a sincere and reflective apology too.
If we don’t learn we will never grow. Hopefully, this message is not dismissed as one of hatred. Love for all people will have contradiction as long as there is division. It is not our job to logically overcome this contradiction by picking a side. It is our job to overcome this contraction through radical love and material transformation.
A Black man who is educated and preaches universal love is the most dangerous thing to the overlords of AmeriKKKa. They can only see this person as a fascist. The NBA is part of what the late great Glen Ford labeled the Black misleadership class. They worked overtime to silence the radical Black-led proletarian movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Kyrie has his mind and his freedom and these are two tools the ruling class will never have. They know they can’t think and they can’t be free. They can only rule over the destruction of our world.
