These days, you can lose your job for a tweet. You can lose it for a retweet, or a spouse's tweet. If your message is considered racist or hateful, it can bring an onslaught of condemnation, followed swiftly by an erasure of your reputation and your career.
So it might seem surprising that after NFL star DeSean Jackson posted several anti-Semitic messages on Instagram last weekend _ including a quote he (wrongly) attributed to Adolf Hitler claiming Jews "will extort America" and "have a plan for world domination" _ there was no mass outrage from his industry, and no immediate punishment from his team.
In fact, although they labeled the posts "offensive" and "appalling," it took nearly a week before the Philadelphia Eagles finally announced the consequences for Jackson's hateful messages: An undisclosed fine.
Think about that. A fine. Meanwhile, despite Jackson repeating the worst form of Jewish stereotyping and citing not only Hitler but Louis Farrakhan, who has called Jews "satanic" and likened them to "termites," only a handful of athletes (several of them Jewish) and some notable media voices criticized him.
Jackson did, however, receive support from other sports stars, including former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who initially said DeSean was "speaking the truth" and claimed Jews "are the richest" and "control the banks," then later said, "I don't support Hitler, I don't know nothing about Hitler and I could give a (expletive) about Hitler!"
Fellow Eagle Malik Jackson supported DeSean Jackson as well, and echoed praise for Farrakhan, even though Farrakhan has referred to Hitler as "a very great man."
Malcolm Jenkins, an NFL player with the New Orleans Saints known for social justice advocacy, seemed bothered that this was "a distraction" from the Black Lives Matter movement, saying: "Jewish people aren't our problem, and we aren't their problem ... We've got a lot of work to do, and this ain't it."
Respectfully, Malcolm, yes, it is.
Because you can't separate one hate from all hate, any more than you can separate a breeze from the wind.
