Lakeith Stanfield Opens Up About Antisemitism Controversy
“Let me just make it clear: I don’t support any form of hatred whatsoever." Lakeith Stanfield speaks out on the controversy surrounding a Clubhouse chat he moderated that sparked anti-Semitic remarks: https://t.co/bEXMOfv2e3 pic.twitter.com/jlFU9m0pp3
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) May 15, 2021
update on this post
Lakeith Stanfield apologised again for joining an antisemitic in the Clubhouse and claims that he doesn't remember appearing in a now-deleted video called “Swastikas and Bones".
"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.”
Comments made by participants in the Clubhouse room included praise of Hitler, conspiracy theories about Jewish people running the slave trade, and comparisons of Jewish people to termites.
Stanfield claims that his knowledge of Farrakhan was limited (even though he has a long legacy of antisemitic remarks), which lead him to enter the room. “I was curious to kind of educate myself more on the topic. 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 said.
He said he was caught off guard when a woman called him out, “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.”
A music video that Lakeith Stanfield posted on YouTube in 2013, now deleted, titled “Swastikas and Bones” allegedly features Stanfield rapping with his shirt off and a swastika digitally added to 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.”
“It was stupid and that was dumb... So, I’d never do that again. I’d never use that symbol again.”
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