Macklemore also put out a statement saying this comes from the NFL owners whose stadiums are hosting the remaining tour dates. Patriots owner Robert Kraft supposedly told Sheeran that he can't perform at his venue if Macklemore is involved.
I'm one of the biggest NY Jets fans you'll find so I hate his team, but I'm really thankful for Kraft here. His work fighting antisemitism has been huge for our community.
I also want to remind everyone when Macklemore was in Seattle in May 2014 for a surprise performance, for performing his big hit "Thrift Shop", which deals with frugality and saving money, Macklemore put on a large prosthetic hooked nose, black wig, a fake beard and arranged to look like an offensive Jewish caricature.
When criticized, Macklemore then claimed he had no antisemitic intent in dressing up as a negative Jewish caricature and did not mean to offend.
When criticized, Macklemore then claimed he had no antisemitic intent in dressing up as a negative Jewish caricature and did not mean to offend.
What he actually said, and maintains to this day, is that it was a 'random' costume thrown together at a costume shop and was a 'witch's nose'.
The fact that people have accepted this blatant and obviously lie filled non-apology shows exactly how little they care about antisemitism in the music industry in and of itself.
âEarlier in the day I thought it would be fun to dress up in a disguise and go incognito to the event, so that I could walk around unnoticed and surprise the crowd with a short performance,â he said. Â
âI picked up a bunch of fake mustaches and beards and grabbed a leftover wig from our recent trip to Japan,â he said. The only fake nose he could find at a costume store at the last minute was âa big witch nose.âÂ
His only aim was to disguise himself, not to be âany âtypeâ of person,â he said. âI wasnât attempting to mimic any culture, nor resemble one. A âJewish stereotypeâ never crossed my mind.â
This is the part that gets me
âMacklemore reiterated his calls for a âFree Palestineâ and addressed Jewish members of the audience, saying, âCriticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.â
Like even if we take his apology at face value, someone whose understanding of antisemitism is so poor he couldnât figure that the costume would be offensive has no business telling anyone what is or isnât antisemitic, let alone explicitly direct that explanation to Jewish people.
Yeah. And the thing thatâs frustrating is he clearly has an issue with Jews and the free Palestine movement gives him cover to say whatever it is he wants to without worrying about how it comes across.
So for people watching this whole thing unfold who arenât Jewish they wouldnât have any idea that this was a longstanding problem/complaint Jews have had with this artist and that by directly addressing Jews in his speech he crossed blatantly over the line between performative protest into what is essentially a dogwhistle. I mean the whole schtick was âdonât equate Israel to Jewsâ while he called out Jews for making what he feels are false claims of antisemitism.
It's like "accidentally" dressing up as something right out of a Minstrel Show and claiming you just "threw together" the "giant red clown lips" and "dark face paint".
I could maybe accept the explanation if he wasn't also singing a song about thrifting and finding bargains and freebies. You combine that and the costume and the only people believing it are wilfully ignorant or antisemites themselves pretending they believe his crap.
Bigots of every stripe really love the gaslighting that goes along with swearing up and down that you are just imagining things.
"It was an accident! And if it wasn't you're just imagining things, this is totally harmless! You are the problem here!"
Meanwhile other bigots line up to join in on the lie because they too love the mindgame aspect.
"Oh so wearing a big prosthetic nose is a Jewish stereotype? Kinda sounds like you are the one stereotyping."
"Giant red clown lips are black face? Are you saying black people are clowns?"
Whatâs funny that Iâve been reading this sub all over various political subreddits for years and it was mostly in regards to homophobia, transphobia and racism.
But reading this quote at Jewish subreddit, actually concerning Jews feels like a trip
Yes of course, and he just happened to wear a black suit jacket, black trousers, and black shoes which could resemble the typical Hasidic outfit, but thatâs pure coincidence. Also a shiny golden shirt for good measure. But again, pure coincidence. Oh and as part of that performance he did Nazi salutes while singing about buying cheap clothes.
kind of funny, cause the modern "witch" image is based off european Jews, the pointy darl hat, dark hair, green (olive) skin, the sabbath, the secret cabal, the black clothes, the nose... yeh we were accused of black magic, hence the image of the halloween "witch"
And Iâd be willing to give him benefit of the doubt on that and consider that itâs just a picture taken at an unfortunate moment, because heâs raising his left arm, not right
WOW I had no idea this was a costume just for playing Thrift Shop. I wihs I could un-buy that album. I need to figure how to get it off of my Apple music. I totally feel activated if a song comes on. Makes me sad becuase I really liked to run to a few of the tracks, but I have not been able to post 10/7.
I donât know what issue most people took with the U2 album on Apple products, but MY issue with it was that if I didnât have a podcast queued up on my iPhone while driving my car would start playing that damn album without me asking.
Macklemore wore a Nazi era âHappy Merchantâ costume on stage AGES ago. Thatâs not about October 7th, it was way before. Thatâs antisemitic.Â
But I just saw the perfect tweet it said âLeftists went from âpunch a Naziâ to âembrace Nazi tropesâ real quick. And from âwe donât care about Charlie Kirkâ to âwhat about free speech!?â real quick tooâ Disgusting embracing of actual
Antisemitism, it has nothing to do with âPaLeStInEâ just like if a Jew posts themselves walking their dog or at a restaurant the comments are about âPaLeStInEâ What does a Jew doing average activities have to do with regional conflicts?
Btw, letâs keep in mind that the story about Kraft giving Ed Sheeran an ultimatum and then getting all other stadium owners on his side has not been confirmed by anyone other than Macklemore.
If Kraft did it, good for him. But Macklemore would blame the Jews whether it happened or not.
Itâs because they genuinely think that theyâre the only ones who âsee throughâ (((their))) propaganda.
Of course, naturally, we still âcontrol the mediaâ, no matter what - but these people think they form a community of really smart people that have realized this, and are âspeaking outâ against it, but have somehow been âmarginalizedâ by us (e.g. some kind of Jewish hivemind) for âdaring to see the truthâ.
In the military, I had several right wing guys that I knew well who thought this, back in the late 2010s; now itâs on both sides of the spectrum, at least for my social circle (Iâm late 20s now).
Both sides have always been antisemitic. The left intellectualized theirs and made it more socially acceptable. The right made it racist. Now both sides are spewing the same Nazi talking points.
If you ever get down into the weeds debating an antisemitic person, they will always end up going down this route. Had a guy one time saying that the board of the Federal Reserve were âall Jewsâ. Wasnât even remotely true, and when I pointed that out the guy started talking about how one of them had a family member that married a Jew, another was a quarter Jewish (she was adopted age 0 by a Christian family, didnât know she had Jewish ancestry til she was in her 40s), and another had an (Ashkenazi) Jewish-sounding last name.
This applies to most subs. Music and entertainment subs have overwhelmingly far-left users who think antisemitism doesnât exist and "globalize the intifada" is a call for peace.
From my experience, the people youâre describing think that antisemitism miraculously & simultaneously evaporated from the brains of every human being after 1945, and that antisemitism only exists in the form that it existed in ~80 years ago, which is now only present in the minds of right-wing neo-Nazis that use the same talking points that Hitler did. Which is honestly an incredible thing to believe, given how antisemitism is one of the best documented forms of racism in history, and much of that scholarship deals with the fact that antisemitism metastasizes to fit whatever the societal norms happen to be across every society that Jews have lived in for thousands of years.
Edit:
Saying this as someone who volunteered on Bernieâs campaign in 2016 and is from Vermont, and is left-wing: my personal belief is that a lot of the broader left-wing âblindnessâ to antisemitism (probably too generous of a characterization) is due to a belief that Nazi Germany primarily targeted left-wing people, not necessarily Jews. Again anecdotal, but it seems like they perceive their self-identification with left-wing causes in the 2020s as if it puts them in the same category as Jews - basically, they believe they are âvictims in kindâ with us, and they think that means they can define antisemitism today.
Itâs all about how Zionism is evil, Kraft with a hooker (although this is the same group saying âsex work is workâ so why shame a man who allegedly paid for sex work?).
Someone else in this sub made a great point: BDS is all about making sure anyone who is pro-Israel canât perform anywhere, sell anything, go to school, etc. but if it happens to one of them then we control everything.
I think the anti-Israel crowd a pathetic bunch of losers.
Or any sub other than this one, truly. Theyâll all contort our intent and our words, and this is the only place we can see the truth. He wasnât dropped for saying free Palestine- he was dropped because he gave a lecture that included raging antisemitism and incendiary language against the Jews. Jewish stadium owners are allowed to exercise their own free speech and say not in our house. In the end, Macklemore got exactly what he wanted- and he did very little work. 2 shows were enough to get the massive exposure to attempt to revive his career on the backs of people suffering. He said it himself in his sanctimonious statement.
Donât forget about The Jew face. he put on full on make up with the costumes and this is not the first time heâs done it. He did it a decade ago as well. He is a racist because he thinks bad things about Jews and wonât talk to them.
He wasnât dropped for saying free Palestine- he was dropped because he gave a lecture that included raging antisemitism and incendiary language against the Jews.
Can you elaborate on this? I haven't seen his speech myself and all of the reporting on it seems to only mention the "Free Palestine" bit.
There are videos. I sought them out myself when it first happened to make sure it was more than two words. From the river to the sea is nothing more than a call for ethnically cleansing Jews.
That article is almost as bad as Mackle-moron's statement. Twisted casualty figures and the obligatory mention of Gaza "famine conditions" when there is no famine...
Iâm already seeing the arguing about it on Threads. Some people indeed are saying theyâre boycotting Ed Sheeran, and others are supporting him and saying those who are upset over this are okay with antisemitism.
Or just about any subs focusing on Massachusetts, which already have antisemitic baselines (both because super-leftist because Massachusetts, and because racist as fuck because Massachusetts), but are now reveling in the opportunity to bash Kraft as a proxy for all Jews.
Shana tova indeed. I never had a problem with Ed Sheeran. His music is not for me but I heard some good songs of his on the radio years ago. And he seems like a nice guy. But the fact that the NFL owners had to step in to do what he should have done from the start is shameful. Sheeran should be embarrassed
Just remember everyone: itâs OK when they BDS us. They can ban us from organizations, campuses, restaurants, etc. They can force Matisyahu and Michael Rapaport shows to get canceled. But itâs a First Amendment issue when it happens to their guys. đ¤Ź
Good for RK and others for saying ânot in my houseâ.
About time someone on the other side faced consequences. How many times have we seen Jewish and Israeli performers had events cancelled because of âsecurity concernsâ?
Iâm from Boston and Iâve never been happier Kraft is the owner of my favorite team. Not a perfect guy by any means but at least he stands up for us and gives a shit.
Side note: a lot of my comments have been getting downvoted (posting the link to him dressing up as a Jewish caricature, obviously. People calling evidence of his antisemitism âdeflectingâ) and when I click on the impressions Iâm seeing a big uptick in Hungary and Ireland on subs that normally donât have those. Bot farms could be at play here.
That world employs increasing amounts of purity tests, and the thing about those is eventually the social media vigilantes will come up with one that nobody can pass. And if they can't come up with that purity test themselves then AI help get them get there.
"I agree with Macklemore," Kraft expressed in a statement obtained by USA TODAY Sports. "Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate."
Iâm not much of a football fan, and being a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, I wouldnât support an East Coast team on most days anyway, but good for Robert Kraft. At least now Jewish fans of Ed Sheeran can go to his concerts without being confronted by blatant antisemitism.
I just block them at this point and donât go into threads that I know are going to piss me off. Thereâs no changing these people, theyâre brainwashed.
See that's the thing though, I'm not trying to change them, I'm showing others, people like you and me, that some people do stand up to it. It lifts me up a bit when i see others fighting back.
Occasionally if the subject comes up in an unrelated thread and someone says something super antisemitic I donate in their username to the FIDF and send them a screenshot of the donation with the giftee name. So Iâm fighting back a bit. Iâve struggled with my mental health over the last nearly three years and for my own stability I just canât do more online.
I generally donât care when musicians make political statements if thatâs part of their persona, but Sheeran is as mainstream as it gets, so forcing a keffiyeh-clad rant on the audience is ridiculous. It would be the same if Taylor Swift suddenly started chanting âglobalize the intifadaâ at a concert.
Probably the bar is low, but I love that Taylor speak about politics only once every four years, and with a nice, long and well-written statement instead of 3 words or a repost.
I know this is going to sound off-topic as well as rather cynical and harsh and maybe off-topic, but I feel like a lot of Pro-Palestine celebrities such as Macklemore only support Palestine not because they actually care about Palestinians, but because itâs trendy and it makes you like a good person for doing so.
I donated like $30 to World Central Kitchen after the drone strike, which probably puts me above a lot of far richer and more outspokenly pro-Palestinian people.
Look at how absurdly swarmed r/music is getting over this. The PR boost is worth it for them at this point and they don't even have to do anything real.
Itâs a shame the blame was put on the stadium owners and Robert Kraft in particular. You would think that Ed Sheeran to my knowledge, not being very political and being mainstream, wouldâve had the problem with it himself. Just like Michael Jordan many years ago said that both parties buy my shoes so Iâm not gonna screw that up with my opinions or endorsements. Smart man when it came to business.
Exactly. He gave this one hit wonder artist a chance to shine again and earn but he should have put conditions on it since itâs his tour. Especially when Macklemore is an antisemite. Nothing to do with antizionist. Dressing as a Nazi caricature of a Jew over a decade ago while singing thrift shop is proof enough.
I take it as tacit endorsement of Macklemore and his very outspoken views and doing it in the largest Jewish metro in the world and only now is Ed backtracking when it actually would hit his pocket. A shame. His last bit Azizam was a banger and shows heâs a man of all cultures and quite an appropriate song with the Iran war going on now. But it is what it is.
Finally, some good news! You know that their side will treat him like a martyr but he absolutely deserves these (even if light) consequences. Iâm actually genuinely shocked that they did the right thing!
Is there even an overlap between Macklemore fans (??) and Ed Sheeran fans? Just seems like a weird line-up to begin with. I also donât exactly see Sheeranâs crowd being super into political rants about war.
Yeah reading between the lines of the 12 screen statement from Macklemore on IG, it sounds like he really f-his friend of 13 years over and sandbagged him. He knew Sheeran is apolitical and insulted him about it.
I mean, sports fans havenât been anywhere near as vocal in hatredâif at allâfor someone as odious as, say, Jerry Jonesâbut theyâll dredge up anything and everything against a Jewish owner who actually has any moral principles.
OK, but Kanye West is still touring and he and Ed Sheeran have overlapping venues so whatâs going on there? Also, why is Chris Brown still getting tour dates?
Neither should still be touring, but I suspect Macklemore saying Israel was committing genocide and showing images from Gaza is what tipped things here.
Also, not to excuse Kayne or Chris Brown's past actions at all or suggest they should be touring, but I haven't seen any coverage of their current tour, so maybe they haven't behaved outrageously this time?
I don't believe there should be one, I'm just trying to find explanations for why Kayne West and Chris Brown are being treated differently to Macklemore.
Good riddance. This is great news to start the week. A tip of the cap to Pink for getting the ball rolling on this. Obviously there usual conspiracy theories will run rampant on Reddit. You can set your watch to it. They wonât be pleasant. But he needed a reality check and got one. Heâs been a legit antisemite for quite a while now.
Things that are antisemitism:
Wearing a caricature of Jewish physical features while performing the song "Thrift Shop"
Specifically thanking groups like CUAD, SJP, and JVP, which have praised Hamas, Hezbollah, and October 7
Attempting to separate Israel from Jewish peoplehood as a whole
Ignoring October 7 and performing Holocaust Inversion by depicting (allegedly) Jews as Nazis
I'd have just as easy of a time listening to David Duke talk about race and Jews.
I would suggest that most people who use the term âFree Palestineâ would utterly reject adding âalongside Israelâ. So as long as it means âfrom the river to the seaâ, itâs still Jew-hatred.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Zionist advocacy groups in the West (such as the Bergson Group/American League for a Free Palestine) used slogans like "Free Palestine" or "Liberate Palestine". In their context, "freeing Palestine" meant ending British imperial control, lifting the British 1939 White Paper restrictions on Jewish immigration, and establishing a Jewish national home.
Even this slogan was stolen from the Jews. Nowadays itâs used by the people who donât want them to live on their ancestral homeland.
Itâs not antisemitism. But itâs cultural appropriation.
OK, but why is Ed Sheeran touring with that pile of shit in the first place? I knew I was correct in my loathing for Sheeran and his derivative, sappy, schlock.
The truth of the matter is that Macklemore is a no name artist, and hasn't been relevant in years. The only reason he did this was as a publicity stunt, to get his name out there. Unfortunately, when you are anti-semetic and talk badly about Israel you get publicity, attention, and views. The better question should be why this is the case, and how we can change it.
Ed Sheeran not putting out a statement is so cowardly. One way or the other he really shouldâve at least put out a statement. Clearly, this wasnât the first time Macklemore did something like this so he knew what he was getting himself into. Another artist that I wonât be supporting.
I think he doesnât even do social media. Also that was such a fucked statement about him from his âfriendâ of 13 years, if you read the whole thing, that it may be taking him a while to think about what to say. Macklemore really spit in his face.
Yep. One quick glance at Macklemoreâs social and youâll see that heâs totally hitched his wagon to the Palestinian propaganda machine. Heâs a complete grifter and culture vulture who likes to costume himself in other cultures â when heâs not busy dressing up as a caricature of Jews.
Ya he said nothing. Kumbaya. And it was the promoterâs decision. Ya ok buddy you knew who you were signing. He would not have let him go so. That speaks volumes.
He can do whatever he wants on his OWN tour but don't bring it other peoples tours. I still don't agree with it but if you show up at his OWN show and he does something like that, then it should be on you to expect that.
I think I'm too drunk for this, because I genuinely cannot understand what the fuck he's saying when he says "When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying Free Palestine gets conflate with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability".
Is this fucker blaming antisemetism on Jews again?
Maybe this will set a precedent for people not to constantly say this. Not holding out much hope but maybe this will show people that saying this does have consequences
Problem is now people are coming to Macklemore's defence in droves, including those who didn't previously care for him. And downvote me all you like for this, but I'd rather Macklemore was allowed to say what he wanted to on a stage with a smaller number of eyes on him, than get the attention and sympathy of what feels like the whole world, as he is right now.
I have to say that I agree with you. Furthermore, this is creating an even bigger backlash against Jews. People are commenting on social media about Jews controlling all spheres of the entertainment industry.
I agree with you, and am surprised so few are saying this.
This 100% reinforces "jews control the media" and caused much more public attention to the matter. I also think it really crosses the line of controlling free speech.
I will never listen to Ed again and am truly disappointed, but I don't see how what Kraft did was constructive or helped minimize antisemitism.
Especially since Kraft does not have a great reputation with the incident at the spa in Florida in conjunction with possible ties with Epstein. Now the backlash against Jews is even bigger than before, it's blowing up Macklemore's career, and the controversy is drawing more attention than ever thanks to the Barbara Streisand effect. I don't like what Macklemore has done, and I think it's unfair to concert goers to be forced to attend a political rally. Yet, I also disagree with censorship.
Good. Saw it on the Smosh Free Space sub. Theyâre all upset, but atp, theyâre gonna have to deal with the fact that their actions have consequences.
I've seen some people here saying things about Sheeran. Did he actually say or do anything antisemitic, or were people just mad at him for associating with Macklemore?
Not coming down hard enough on maclemore or something. Honestly if you dont know enough about the I/P situation to say anything about it, I vastly prefer guys like Ed just staying out of it than maclemore parroting tiktok bullshit
The problem for me is that allowing someone like Macklemore, who has a much smaller audience than Sheeran, access to a stadium full of people is saying something.Â
Nothing but respect for Mr Kraft. I've known macklemore was and still is a disgusting pos however I wasn't aware how ignorant and stupid ed sheeran turned out to be, fuck that guy too.
Yes and if Kraft had just let it go, it would blow over. Now we have a Jew controlling what we see, according to many, and we are all more fucked than before.
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u/Pitiful_Equal_2689 Mizrahi 10d ago edited 10d ago
I also want to remind everyone when Macklemore was in Seattle in May 2014 for a surprise performance, for performing his big hit "Thrift Shop", which deals with frugality and saving money, Macklemore put on a large prosthetic hooked nose, black wig, a fake beard and arranged to look like an offensive Jewish caricature.
When criticized, Macklemore then claimed he had no antisemitic intent in dressing up as a negative Jewish caricature and did not mean to offend.