Open Letter to Desean Jackson in response to his anti-Semitic comments

Dear Desean,

As a son of Holocaust survivors and a defender of the Jewish people I feel it is my obligation to address your recent comments. The initial quote, which you were happy to credit to Adolf Hitler, read as follows:

“(They) will extort America,” the quote read, “(and) their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.”

You went on to indicate that you have great admiration for the Reverend Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan, the man who has referred to Judaism as “a deceptive lie and theological error”. To be frank, those are some of the nicest things he has said about my people. In a response to be called out for his anti-Semitism he replied, “When they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, you know how they do – call me an anti-Semite. Stop it, I’m anti-termite!”  He also once said, “I don’t care what they put on me. The government is my enemy, the powerful Jews are my enemy.”  And while I can go on for many pages, I leave you with one more.“Do you know that in Europe in every nation where they were, they led an industry in commerce in trade in banking? And the gentiles were angry with them because everywhere they went, they ruled. So the gentiles rose up against the Jews and persecuted them in Europe.” 

This is the man you said you have great admiration for, right around the same time that you made your initial anti-Semitic statement.  It has been suggested to me that your statement is based on nothing more than stupidity. In order to determine whether or not I believed that to be the case I decided to read some of your additional Twitter comments.  What I found were highly intelligent, often self-promoting comments from someone who clearly is very aware of what he is saying. I believe your statements to neither be ambiguous nor reticent.  On the contrary, you know how you feel and you are very comfortable sharing it with others, as is your right in the United States of America,  However, I too have a right to tell you how I feel, and therefore I ask you.  If you were in my position would you be satisfied merely because you apologized?

I do not remember a time in my life when I did not know about what the Jewish people went through during the reign of Hitler.  More specifically, I always knew what happened to my family, and as I got older I learned what my parents dealt with when they were at the same age as you were when you were catching footballs and living a great lifestyle with the money paid to you by none other than yes, your Jewish employer.  For 5 years  the Nazis occupied my parents native Holland. My father worked with the resistance but had to flee his neighborhood to survive, always on the run and never certain if he would live to see another day. My mother had to move from hiding place to hiding place knowing that if she were ever to be caught by the Germans, death would be welcome after what they would likely do to her.  She would sleep underground in what she said felt like a coffin for 16 months.  When the war ended my father would learn that his mother, father, sister and brother-in law were murdered by the Nazis and my mother would learn of the same fate befalling her father and brother.  Not to mention the additional relatives and friends they would never see again.  6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.  There were countless accounts of torture, medical experimentation, rape and beatings. And Desean, this goes back a mere 75 years. So I ask you again, would you be OK with what you said if you were in my shoes? Would you be so quick to accept an apology?

Let me offer a quote to you, from none other than the great poet and civil rights icon Maya Angelou.

When someone show you who they are, believe them the first time.

I do not accept your apology, nor will I till I hear you denounce the anti-Semitic comments made by the man you admire so much, Louis Farrakhan. When you do that, I will be willing to accept that you are truly sorry for your comments. Until that time I will see your apology as just a way to make sure you continue getting a very nice paycheck, signed by none other than the Jewish owner of the team you play for.

Sincerely,

David Groen

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