Kanye West is back on Twitter, and his first post came in support of Kyrie Irving, who has also faced backlash for alleged anti-Semitism.
Less than a month after having his account locked after vowing to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” Ye returned to Twitter early Thursday (November 3) and shared a cryptic photo of the embattled Brooklyn Nets star looking into the camera and holding a basketball.
Kanye didn’t include a message with the photo, so his intention behind the post is unclear.
Yeezy previously supported Kyrie Irving on Instagram last week by claiming he was one of the last “real ones” amid a posting spree that resulted in him being suspended from the platform yet again.
The Chicago native had trouble tagging the NBA All-Star in his post, though, as he later shared a screenshot of him searching for Kyrie’s verified account, only to see a swarm of fake pages.
In his caption, Kanye blamed the hitch on the “red media,” a term he previously used to describe media companies that are purportedly ran by Jewish people and have “teamed up” on him.
“They make it impossible to tag the right page when the #redmedia mad at you,” he wrote. “Here’s two examples back to back[.] I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to tag the right page.”
Kanye had, in fact, misspelled Kyrie’s name as “Kryie” in the search bar. Kyrie was bullied/extorted into giving 500k to the ADL because he shared on Twitter ( public platform ) a link to a doc he watched a documentary on Amazon a (public platform ).. why?
“I take my responsibility for posting that,” Irving said in his first public comments since a contentious news conference Saturday night. “Some things that were questionable in there, untrue. Like I said in the first time you guys asked me when I was sitting on that stage, I don’t believe everything that everybody posts — it’s a documentary. So I take my responsibility.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, in a statement released minutes before Irving spoke, said he was “disappointed” that Irving has neither apologized nor “specifically denounced the vile and harmful content contained in the film he chose to publicize.” Silver added that he will be meeting with Irving in person within the next week.
But Irving stood his ground again Thursday regarding both his decision to post the link to the film — which he has since deleted — and his postgame comments Saturday night.
“I didn’t mean to cause any harm,” Irving said. “I’m not the one that made the documentary.”
Irving spoke for just over six minutes Thursday in a news conference that was cut short by a Nets PR staffer. He said that some things in the movie he posted about were untrue but didn’t say that he shouldn’t have posted a link to it and instead asked reporters why they weren’t asking questions about the history of Black people in America.
“Where were you guys asking those same questions when I was a kid learning about the traumatic events of my familial history and what I’m proud to come from,” Irving said, “and proud to stand here and why when I repeat myself that I’m not going to stand down, it has nothing to do with dismissing any other race or group people.
“I’m just proud of my heritage and what we’ve been through and the fact that this has pinned me against the Jewish community and I’m here answering questions of whether or not I’m sorry or not about something I didn’t create and was something I shared, and I’m telling everybody I’m taking responsibility, then that’s where I sit.”
Irving also was asked specifically about his beliefs regarding the Holocaust.
“Those falsehoods are unfortunate,” he said, referring to content in the film. “And it’s not that I don’t believe in the Holocaust. I never said that. Never, ever have said it. It’s not come out of my mouth. I never tweeted it. I never liked anything like it. So the Holocaust in itself is an event that means something to a large group of people that suffered something that could have been avoided.”
When asked specifically whether he had any antisemitic beliefs, Irving did not directly answer the question.
“Again, I’m going to repeat. I don’t know how the label becomes justified because you guys ask me the same questions over and over again,” Irving said. “But this is not going to turn into a spin-around cycle — questions upon questions.
“I told you guys how I felt. I respect all walks of life and embrace all walks of life. That’s where I sit. … I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from.”
Irving also declined to directly answer whether he met with the Anti-Defamation League, which had released a joint statement Wednesday night with the Nets and Irving.
“I was informed that they wanted to have a meeting, and we handled it,” he said.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a tweet Thursday that the ADL “took [Irving] at his word when he said he took responsibility, but today he did not make good on that promise.”
