After allowing antisemitic posts by rapper Wiley to remain online, celebrities and politicians have staged a 48-hour Twitter blackout
Actor Tracy-Ann Oberman has launched a 48-hour boycott of Twitter under the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate. She launched the campaign after Twitter allowed antisemitic tweets by UK grime artist Wiley to remain public for two days before enstating a seven-day ban on the London rapper. Oberman was quickly joined by fellow actor Jason Isaacs, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and his predecessor Jonathan Sacks, musicians Jessie Ware and Billy Bragg, politicians David Lammy and Jess Phillips, and thousands more.
Please join us .@Twitter has allowed @WileyCEO 48 hours of pure race hate. His tweets are still up. @jack has to stick by their remit of anti racism. Silence is complicity. Please walk out with us . No to all race hate . No to platforming any race hate #nosafespaceforjewhate pic.twitter.com/gKFDedjzmM
— Tracy-Ann Oberman (@TracyAnnO) July 25, 2020
On Friday 24 July Wiley went on an antisemitic rant on Twitter, stating: “Jewish would do anything to ruin a black mans life” [sic], “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people” and “There are 2 sets of people who nobody has really wanted to challenge #Jewish & #KKK but being in business for 20 years you start to undestand why” [sic].
“My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle ... to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility.” Martin Luther King Jr.#NoSafeSpaceforJewHate
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 27, 2020
Many Jews and non-Jews announced their outrage at these posts and at the social media platform for not responding promptly. Lammy reacted with a Martin Luther King Jr quote and Countdown’s Rachel Riley referenced previous racist attacks that happened on Twitter. Others agreed with taking a stand, but by speaking out instead of silencing themselves. “To be honest, I'd much rather we had 48 hours of very noisy support for Jewish people,” tweeted historian Lucy Inglis, while human rights barrister Adam Wagner said: “Something about the idea of agreeing to silence myself over antisemitism, when the impact I have had over this issue has mostly been through speaking out, just feels weird.”
Something about the idea of agreeing to silence myself over antisemitism, when the impact I have had over this issue has mostly been through speaking out, just feels weird
— Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) July 26, 2020
To be honest, I'd much rather we had 48 hours of very noisy support for Jewish people. #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate
— lucyinglis (@lucyinglis) July 27, 2020
Wiley’s manager John Woolf, who is Jewish, has promptly dropped the artist from his roster, stating on Twitter: “Following Wiley's antisemitic tweets today we at @A_ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism.”
By Danielle Goldstein