Seeing a lot of tweets from folks outraged over Viacom effectively firing Nick Cannon, calling out names like Donald Sterling for anti-black racism. Uh... yeah! Absolutely true! He's a stain upon us, and nobody I know respects him. We disavow him, and others like him. (1/x)

I wish we could cut Sterling, Stephen Miller, Ben Shapiro, Bari Weiss, Bret Stephens, Sheldon Adelson & their ilk off from the rest of us. They fester. They're awful. They represent the worst of our people.

That's what you do with the worst among you: you repudiate them. (2/x)

Donald Sterling

Which is why we need to have an open, honest discussion about the level of influence and power Louis Farrakhan (and others like him) can wield in the Black community. Minister Farrakhan espouses some of the most brutally bigoted ideas out there. (3/x)

Now, why do Farrakhan and the NoI have influence? Because they really HAVE done many good things for the Black community. They encourage self-reliance, they work against drugs and crime, they preach self-respect. And none of his bigoted words change that. BUT. (4/x)

Farrakhan has fomented hate against Jews and LGBQT individuals over and over and over again. The NoI's claims that Jews ran the Atlantic slave trade have been proven to be distorted, and condemned by scholars like Drs. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West. (5/x)

He's spoken positively of Adolf Hitler. He's falsely claimed as recently as 2015 that “there were many Israelis and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attacks" and pushed the pernicious conspiracy theory of global control by Jews via the banks. (6/x)

He has called same-sex marriage "Satanic", and claimed that homosexuals are "being chemically programmed against [their] nature." He's pushed conspiracy theories about vaccinations even as the COVID-19 epidemic rages, claiming Bill Gates wants to "depopulate the earth." (7/x)

So all of this leads to a negative and wholly predictable effect: when people like Stephen Jackson and Tamika Mallory - who do FANTASTIC activist work for righteous causes - align themselves with Farrakhan, it gives enemies of those causes fodder to undercut them. (8/x)

Yes, we *all* need to do more to repudiate and denounce the bad actors in our midst. Instead of shaking our heads or ignoring it, we need to decry bigoted, hateful, immoral words and deeds within our communities. I'll hold myself to that in the Jewish community forever. (9/x)

So let's talk about how Farrakhan and the NoI have gained such influence, and what we can do to combat the disinformation and ignorance they've put into the world while continuing to support worthy causes. We're all in this together; it means sticking up for each other. (10/x)

Finally, and most important, I want to talk about this and other issues. Reasoned, thoughtful and compassionate conversations are the only way we'll make progress as allies and fellow humans. Let's talk about how we can do more, be better, and defeat hatred in all its forms. FIN