The Draw Play

DJax what are you doing

I mean, YIKES. Big yikes. Out of stupid things players have said over the past year while going crazy from Covid and protesting, quoting Hitler Was Right propaganda might be the dumbest. What the fuck, dude.

In case you are reading this post huddled in a cave in the red wastes in the year 2023 as the fire and the worms creep ever closer, trying in vain to pass the time and remember what the old world was like before things went to hell by reading silly football comics until the icy hand of death embraces you, or you just haven’t been online this week and missed the story, DeSean Jackson posted antisemitic Hitler propaganda on his Instagram. Then he sort of doubled down, then we got a weak apology from the Eagles and Jackson himself. As of this writing, that’s where we at.

There is soooooooo much to unpack about all of this, far more than you might see at first glance. Here’s the main post in question, for reference. Right off the bat you can tell the problem. It quotes Hitler! Positively! The page literally ends with the phrase “Hitler was right”. Now, it shouldn’t take folks long to notice that something seems off about this and there are plenty of clues that this isn’t a true Hitler quote. Hitler probably wouldn’t reference the Illuminati or world war 3, and also Hitler was not nearly this supportive of black people. Hitler wasn’t a fan of black people and I highly doubt at any point considered them the true children of Israel.

The quote he posted is from a book. This twitter thread gives some good detail about the source, but for summary it is written by a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. I’m far too under-qualified to speak on that movement as I only learned about it recently but some cursory research makes it fairly clear they are a very antisemitic group. So as far as we need to know for the basics, they are a group of black people who believe they are the true descendants of Israelites and not the Jews, which of course explains the antisemitism. We shall be extremely charitable and call this movement controversial. They, and similar movements (such as the Nation of Islam), are considered hate groups.

No matter what though, DeSean was a complete goddamn moron about this, because under no circumstances should anyone look at a page that says “Hitler was right” and think “this is what I want to post my agreement with!” Even alt-right shitheads who are basically Nazis are still kind of afraid to openly support Hitler that much. Once you openly support Hitler, you’ve officially lost any argument credibility because at that point you are a nazi, and everyone agrees nazis are bad. Alt-righters have to strain to disassociate from nazis (even though they are basically nazis) for this reason.

I don’t know how anyone could look at a page like that and decide this is what I want to publicly support. But, I also don’t have the highest opinion of Jackson’s intellect so I’m actually inclined to be somewhat charitable here and assume he’s just a complete moron. I think he’s fucked up on the state of the country (like most of us are) and (like most of us), is searching for deeper meaning and understanding of everything going on. He found this book, with a passage about how black people are oppressed by a group of people called white, and in a context it feels like a form of truth to power. It mirrors what a lot of black folks are saying about current systems of oppression. The problem with this version is it says the oppressing is being done by Jews. That should be the massive red flag that gets a person to go “oh, wait, this is suspect” but DeSean instead highlighted it and posted it on Insta. He followed it up with some Louis Farrakhan stuff, which is basically doubling down.

He then followed that up by saying he has no hate in his heart and that he did not intend any hatred or prejudice against the Jews, which…I don’t know how you highlight and post a passage like that without intending hate, even if he is just a dumbass. He posted something that was very explicitly antisemitic with no real room for misinterpretation on it. Also it fucking ends the page with “Hitler was right”.

None of this makes DeSean look good. The most charitable reading is he tried to find some meaning and found it in an extremely controversial place and made the boneheaded mistake of trying to share a perspective without proper context because he’s a dumbass, or he actually is being influenced or is a part of this movement or belief system. If it is the latter I am woefully under-prepared for that discussion. I still want to believe he was just a moron who maybe went down the wrong rabbit hole searching for meaning, kind of like how Kyrie Irving wants to be deep and then ended up thinking the Earth was flat after watching conspiracy videos.

I don’t think the Eagles should cut him, yet. Not unless the situation gets immediately worse. I found their statement on the matter rather weak, but I also didn’t expect much to begin with. The Eagles kept Riley Cooper around and even gave him an extension after he publicly used the N-word, cutting DJax immediately after keeping Cooper might be pretty bad optics. There’s also the awkward point that the owner and GM (Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman) are both Jewish. If they cut Jackson, it might be understandable, but it could also fuel the very perspective that Jackson was sharing. A player posting a quote about how Jewish people are oppressing blacks, then that player gets cut by two powerful Jewish people in charge? When they kept Riley The Racist Cooper? That’s just going to fuel the people who believe this view, which again could include Jackson himself, taking him and others further into this hole of hate. But not cutting him appears to condone antisemitism and that’s not exactly a great look either. On top of all this, it now gives gross right wingers a great scapegoat to discredit the BLM movement or anything black folks are saying during the current fight because Jackson fucking went out and quoted Hitler propaganda, and a bunch of other athletes (Jameis Winston, KD, Steven Jackson) liked it. Maybe they shouldn’t cut him, but they need to massively fine him and suspend him, and put forth a visible effort to right the wrong.

What a fucking mess Jackson has caused. All of this could have been avoided if Jackson had enough brain cells to look at a page saying Hitler Was Right and realize posting that was a bad idea. That’s the part I can’t get over.

EDIT: apparently he’s been liking posts that defend his antisemitic actions and my inclination to view him as just a big dumbass might be too charitable. Looks like he might really believe this crap. That’s a shame, cut him.

Mahomes Money Comic on Friday!