Kyrie Irving was suspended for promoting an antisemitic film. Origins of the Black Hebrew Israelites

[Behind the Aegis]

Kyrie Irving was suspended for promoting an antisemitic film. Here are the origins of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and its extremist sects.

The Brooklyn Nets announced on Thursday that they will be suspending Kyrie Irving for promoting an antisemitic film on Twitter.

In a now-deleted tweet, Irving shared the link to "Hebrew to Negroes: Wake Up Black America," a 2018 film that claims to prove that certain people of color, including Black Americans, are the true descendants of the biblical Israelites.

The film also alleges that Jews have conspired to oppress and defraud Black people, including through the transatlantic slave trade, and that Jews have falsified the history of the Holocaust to "contain their nature and protect their status of power," according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The incident has sparked renewed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelite (BHI) movement that espouses this belief — extremist factions of which have a long history of antisemitism, homophobia, misogyny, and xenophobia.

The beliefs of the increasingly aggressive BHI factions have also filtered into mainstream discourse. In a 2020 episode of his podcast, the actor Nick Cannon said, "They have taken our birthright," espousing the idea that Jews are actively working to steal the identity of Hebrew Israelites.

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[Solly Mack]

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