Entertainment
LaKeith Stanfield apologises for moderating anti-Semitic Clubhouse room and ‘condemns hate speech’
LaKeith Stanfield has condemned all hate speech after he moderated a Clubhouse room which hosted anti-Semitic comments.
The Atlanta star has issued a statement after it emerged that he was a moderator of a discussion on the social network app that descended into anti-Semitic hate speech.
The Clubhouse room titled ‘Someone Ended the Room About Farrakhan’ opened after a previous room was shut down due to inflammatory comments made during a talk on Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
According to the Daily Beast, conspiracy theories about Jewish people controlling the slave trade, positive comments about Hitler and attempts to justify a comment from Farrakhan that compared Jews to termites were made in the room.
It was noted that Stanfield was a moderator of the room, and that while he didn’t make any anti-Semitic remarks himself, he did not shut down the room when the hate speech occurred.
The 29-year-old shared a statement on Instagram apologising for ‘what went on’ and giving a ‘platform’ to hate speech.
The actor, who was recently nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Judas and The Black Messiah, wrote: ‘Yesterday I entered an online chat room on Clubhouse about the teachings of Louis Farrakhan. When the room’s participants noticed me, I was quickly made a moderator of this room.
‘At some point during the dialogue the discussion took a very negative turn when several users made abhorrent anti-Semitic statements and at that point, I should have either shut down the discussion or removed myself from it entirely.
‘I condemn hate speech and discriminatory views of every kind. I unconditionally apologise for what went on in that chat room, and for allowing my presence there to give a platform to hate speech. I am not an anti-Semite nor do I condone any of the beliefs discussed in that chat room.’
After he moderated the room on Wednesday night, Stanfield attended another room which was moderated by a panel of Jewish educators and allies, and the actor thanked everyone for educating him.
He admitted that the rooms became ‘derailed’ and said: ‘Someone would say something that was without a doubt anti-Semitic… and then instead of acknowledging why it was anti-Semitic, it would just go back to that original person, and then it would kind of repeat what they were saying.’
The Get Out star, who has 79,000 followers on Clubhouse, added that in future, he needs to pay ‘attention to what is actually being discussed and determine if that’s a discussion that you really want to get into’ in rooms he is moderating.
Farrakhan has denied being anti-Semite but has made many comments over the years deemed anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League, including calling Judaism a ‘gutter religion’ and referring to Adolf Hitler as a ‘great man’.
Clubhouse has been accused of not doing enough to crack down on anti-Semitism on the app, with the team for the network saying: ‘All forms of racism, antisemitism, hate speech and abuse are prohibited in Clubhouse and are a direct violation of the Community Guidelines.’
Stanfield is currently filming season three of Atlanta alongside Donald Glover and Brian Tyree Henry, returning to play Darius on the hit show.
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