{"id":207947,"date":"2021-03-10T11:45:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T16:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=207947"},"modified":"2021-03-10T11:45:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T16:45:19","slug":"when-judging-anti-semitism-should-we-accept-ignorance-as-an-excuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/when-judging-anti-semitism-should-we-accept-ignorance-as-an-excuse\/","title":{"rendered":"When Judging Anti-Semitism, Should We Accept Ignorance As An Excuse?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhen-judging-anti-semitism-should-we-accept-ignorance-as-an-excuse%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=207947&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-51.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>On Monday, Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard appeared to direct an anti-Semitic slur towards another player while streaming a \u201cCall of Duty\u201d game on Twitch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cF***ing cowards. Don\u2019t f***ing snipe me. You f***ing k**e b**ch,\u201d Leonard was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/miami-heats-meyers-leonard-apologizes-for-using-anti-semitic-slur-on-twitch-will-be-away-from-the-team-indefinitely\">heard<\/a> saying during the stream.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"5.4634146341463\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Meyers Leonard says racial slurs while playing CoD <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WHwUnbV0pR\">pic.twitter.com\/WHwUnbV0pR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Main Team (@MainTeamSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MainTeamSports\/status\/1369353805138178049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 9, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>In response to the almost immediate backlash, Meyers Leonard posted an<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CMN-G35DdD9\/\"><span>apology<\/span><\/a> <span>to his Instagram account.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhile I didn\u2019t know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong,\u201d Leonard wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI am now more aware of its meaning and I am committed to properly seeking out people who can help educate me about this type of hate and how we can fight it,\u201d he continued.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI acknowledge and own my mistake and there\u2019s no running from something like this that is so hurtful to someone else. This is not a proper representation of who I am and I want to apologize to the Arisons, my teammates, coaches, front office, and everyone associated with the Miami Heat organization, to my family, to our loyal fans and to others in the Jewish community who I have hurt. I promise to do better and know that my future actions will be more powerful than my use of this word.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In what is now a familiar routine, Leonard was placed on \u201cindefinite\u201d leave by the Miami Heat, and his various sponsors announced that they had terminated his contracts, effective immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Such instances, especially in the context of the broader subject of \u201ccancelation,\u201d are often lumped together as binary judgements of bigotry, where all that matters are the words or actions used. All other factors, such as context, intent, or timing are dismissed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, Leonard\u2019s doubtlessly anti-Semitic statement \u2014 and his latter apology \u2014 does raise an important question. Should ignorance be accepted as an excuse when partnered with genuine regret?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yes. Yes it should.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a sensible world, intent is a necessary component of bigotry. For example, there\u2019s a clear difference between a Jewish comedian telling a Jewish joke with the goal of making a satirical statement about anti-Semitism and a company\u2019s director telling that same joke during a corporate conference. This isn\u2019t to say that they are not both examples of bigotry in some form, but that such bigotry lies upon a scale of severity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Given the existence of this scale, let\u2019s look at an even more extreme example. Is there a difference between a child who says \u201ck**e\u201d and an anti-Semitic propagandist who uses the same word? If your answer \u2014 as it should be \u2014 is yes, then ignorance itself should be a relevant factor when judging the use of such anti-Semitic slurs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s more than possible that Meyers Leonard is telling the truth, and that he didn\u2019t know that k**e was an anti-Semitic slur. After all, we are all guilty of using various non-politically correct terms without fully understanding their etymology. Even as a Jewish person, I didn\u2019t learn about the word k**e until well into my late teens, which indicates that a young non-Jewish basketball player could easily have never been exposed to its true meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ultimately, if we are to unite over the rejection of bigotry, it\u2019s imperative that we do so understanding that other factors should first be considered. When ignorance is a reasonable factor at play, it should at least be considered as an acceptable diluting force upon the gravity of the linguistic offense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Otherwise, how will we ever grow? Otherwise, how will we ever forgive?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ighaworth\"><em>@ighaworth<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard appeared to direct an anti-Semitic slur towards another player while streaming a \u201cCall of Duty\u201d game on Twitch. \u201cF***ing cowards. Don\u2019t f***ing snipe &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310431,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-51.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"When Judging Anti-Semitism, Should We Accept Ignorance As An Excuse?","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-51.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"When Judging Anti-Semitism, Should We Accept Ignorance As An Excuse?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}