170 Hollywood stars—black and Jewish—formed the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance
02/11/2021
170 Hollywood stars - black and Jewish - formed the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance. They want to sing songs together, make movies and fight injustice together.
“Jewish and black artists, musicians and actors were experiencing essentially the same story in their communities,” says Ben Silverman, head of media company Propogate and one of the members of the new Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance. – They were oppressed, limited, and independently of each other they found a kind of refuge and a way out in art. Over time, both of them became pioneers, making a revolution in music, cinema and show business.
Silverman grew up in a creative Jewish family: his mother is an actress, his father is an award-winning composer. From a young age, he himself worked at Warner Bros., then at CBS, and then founded his own media company producing series, shows and television programs. According to him, he fell in love with the idea of an organized union between African Americans and Jews from the very first second: “My Jewish grandfather, Max Delson, also represented the interests of the first black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, he also stood up for the rights of creative people, being active member of the Justice Actors Association when it was run by its first black president, Frederick O'Neill."
Ben explained that the Alliance formed "of its own accord" against the backdrop of already strong "professional and personal" relationships between blacks and Jews in show business. But to fix their intentions officially, they were prompted by “the desire to get rid of the chaos and sorrow of the Trump era.” “The storming of the Capitol in January showed once again how little has changed in our history,” says Silverman. “We stand on the high shoulders of our past, and we have two paths - either continue to take refuge in our shelters one by one, or unite and build a new future.”
Members of the alliance are planning many events. For example, discussions about what it means to be black and what it means to be Jewish. Black singer Autumn Rowe, black street artist Bourne Rich, who calls himself the “voice of social justice,” and Jewish former basketball player David Blue, nee Blutenthal, should be the first to talk about it. The latter, if you remember, played for the Maccabi Tel Aviv club, and even for the Israeli national basketball team. Well, in addition to playing in the NBA, he also played for various teams in Italy, France and even Russia.
Following the discussions, the Alliance plans to discuss the historical creative collaborations of African Americans and Jews, as well as joint trips to places of importance to both communities. For example, in museums. First on the list is the National Museum of African American Music. “Film and art have always given a voice to those who have been unfairly attacked and marginalized. We, blacks and Jews, have been persecuted for a long time simply because of who we are,” said black film director and producer Antoine Fuqua. “By uniting, we will be much stronger.”
Interestingly, the black actor and rapper Nick Cannon, known to us from the films Men in Black and Day of the Dead, became a member of the alliance. The fact is that less than a year later, Cannon was recognized as a terry anti-Semite and fired from MTV, where he hosted several television shows. It happened after he interviewed another rapper, Richard Griffin, known as Professor Griff, for his podcast Cannon's Class. Once Griffin was a member of the group Public Enemy, but he was expelled from there - for anti-Semitic remarks. For some reason, Cannon decided to justify him in a podcast: “Yes, you weren’t any anti-Semite. How can you even be an anti-Semite when we blacks are the Semitic people. We are real Jews." But then Cannon went even further and discussed with Griffin all the stupid anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on the example of the Rothschild family.
At first, Cannon flatly refused to admit his guilt and apologize. But when he was fired from the MTV channel, and then they simply stopped calling for any other new projects, he became thoughtful. He soon deleted the interview with Griffin from everywhere and posted a penitential post on his Twitter: “I offer my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish brothers and sisters for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during the interview with Richard Griffin. They reinforced the worst stereotypes about proud and magnificent people, and I am ashamed of my denseness, of the naivety of my words. I want to assure all my Jewish friends, new and old, that this is only the beginning of my educational journey."
By the way, he did not lie about the beginning of the journey and carried out demonstrative correctional work. Cannon took turns passing several prominent leaders of the Jewish community at once - these were rabbis from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and, finally, the world headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch. Well, when he entered the alliance, everyone finally forgave him - and even MTV recently hired him back to work.
“Jews must continue to stand up against racial injustice while the black community must continue to stand up against all forms of anti-Semitism,” the alliance, signed by 170 American artists, fashion designers, musicians and actors, said in a statement. TV presenter Larry King also entered this alliance - but died shortly thereafter .