Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, banned Macklemore from opening Ed Sheeran’s show at Gillette Stadium. The tour promoter banned Macklemore from other shows on the tour, and now all the opening acts have quit in protest.
Almost everyone has an opinion about Macklemore and Kraft. But it’s so much bigger because it involves Israel and Gaza, Jews and Palestinians.
This is not a single speech act, but a centuries-old blood rivalry getting more and more rancorous and emotional, especially in the rabid American political environment.
Kraft turned Ed Sheeran’s tour into a political circus in a clash over Palestinians and antisemitism.
Rodney Kennedy
Macklemore is an American rapper. At a previous Sheeran show in New Jersey, he made comments considered pro-Palestinian or antisemitic, depending on one’s perspective. As numerous Facebook respondents noted, his words were not hate speech or antisemitic.
What Macklemore said: “To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is criticism of you. My message is for peace, love, and for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.”
That is not hate speech, but Macklemore has a darker history than his noble words. In 2014, Macklemore performed wearing an exaggerated prosthetic nose, black beard and wig, an appearance that evoked one of the oldest and most recognizable antisemitic caricatures. The trope parallels portraying African Americans as apes.
The current controversy began on Sept. 4 and 5, when Macklemore performed at Sheeran’s concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford N.J. Macklemore played his protest song “Hind’s Hall,” which accuses Israel of “genocide” in the war that began after the Hamas-led attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the song’s video shows scenes of destruction in Gaza and of protests in New York.
“I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America,” Macklemore said onstage, “and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine.”
That’s enough to enrage the other side, but nothing said rises to the level of hate speech.
Kraft is wrong to label these remarks “hate speech.” Both the right and the left view “hate speech” as a trigger term. Kraft deliberately chooses a culture war theme invoking wokeness, diversity, race, antisemitism and nativism as his reason for canceling the show. If Kraft were a left-wing liberal, the right would be screaming “cancel culture.”
Instead, as a Trump supporter, Kraft is seen by MAGA as a defender of Jews. He instigated a savage debate between pro-Palestinians and pro-Israelis. He ignited the smoldering flames of the culture war when he said, “We do not provide a platform for hate speech.”
Kraft has a twisted view of hate speech. He simply keeps the “hate wheel turning.” The event would have disappeared after a day in the news cycle, but Kraft has given it life in the polarized American political arena.
What really galls about Kraft’s performative outrage is his willingness to use his own people — the Jews — for personal political gain.
What really galls about Kraft’s performative outrage is his willingness to use his own people — the Jews — for personal political gain. He is following the playbook of Donald Trump.
In a New York Times op-ed, “For Trump, Jews Are Proving to Be a Very Useful Tool,” James Loeffler shows how Trump uses the ancient Palestinian-Jewish conflict as a weapon in right-wing ideology. MAGA attempts to take the moral high ground by defending the Jews, a ground foreign to MAGA for the last decade.
Why did Kraft choose to cancel Macklemore but not Kanye or country music star Morgan Wallen? In a video, Wallen used the “N” word. He was suspended by his record label, his music pulled from radio stations across the U.S. and barred from attending the American Music Awards. Kraft didn’t cancel his show. If Kraft were serious about hate speech, the “N” word is the primal example of hate speech in America.
Kraft attempts to smooth over his decision but the language he uses sounds fake: “Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech.”
Macklemore performs at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater during the South by Southwest Music Festival, March 17, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP)
Kraft descended into irrational mumbo jumbo attempting to show compassion for the suffering of innocent Palestinians. He insisted he didn’t oppose the right of others to advocate on behalf of the Palestinians. Somehow Kraft hooked Macklemore’s speech to Hamas. His words lack the ring of truth.
“This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf. Their pain and loss are real. But that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization whose horrific actions have caused immeasurable suffering for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” he said.
Most disturbing is Kraft’s attempt to be on Macklemore’s side. “I agree with Macklemore. Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate. …. I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same — peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate.”
Yet Kraft gladly pours gasoline onto the burning bonfire of perhaps the most divisive issue in our nation.
Yet Kraft gladly pours gasoline onto the burning bonfire of perhaps the most divisive issue in our nation. It is absurd but we live in absurd times. And in what passes as repentance for a billionaire, Kraft has pledged a $2 million donation over the outcry.
Kraft engages in the crass politics of division. He evokes political alienation, demagoguery and outrage as if he were another Donald Trump. By capitalizing on the pre-existing flames of division, he uses a cheap political trick to keep the outrage at optimal levels.
As badly as Kraft has acted, I can’t let the issue drop without noting the response in Israel has been more positive toward Kraft.
The Times of Israel’s Ben Sales warns, “The Macklemore battle presents a trap that pro-Israel activists have yet to escape.” He adds, “The Macklemore battle illustrates that they seem to have two options: Either stay silent as more and more celebrities accuse Israel of genocide in ever more prominent forums, and hope the tide will pass, or wield the tools available to them to shut down such discourse — and risk magnifying the issue while being labeled as enemies of free speech.”
Jaclyn S. Clark, in her Times of Israel article, “Macklemore got dumped. Pink got canceled. Everyone else lost their minds,” struggles to make sense of it all. “Yes, a billionaire made the call I wanted the headliner to make, and yes, that is the version that lets everyone scream censorship. And yes, a few rich men deciding who gets a microphone in their buildings is worth being nervous about, even when I like the result.”
As I read through multiple articles on Macklemore in the Israeli press, I was struck with how the writers attempted to mark the differences between the action of Israel’s government in Gaza and the attitude of Jews toward Palestinians. One writer notes, “Criticism of Israel is not inherently antisemitic, nor does political speech become antisemitic simply because Jewish listeners disagree with it or find it painful.”
Who bothers in America to bother with the other side, perspective or difference?
I was particularly moved by Ava Swartz’s, “I Believe in Speaking Up: That’s Why I Couldn’t Watch Macklemore.” She was at the concert with her twin sister but the two of them didn’t enter the venue until after Macklemore completed his act.
Swartz writes: “I don’t hate Macklemore for saying what he said. I think he’s trying, in the only language he’s ever been handed; I just wish he understood that the words that make him feel heard are the same ones that make people like me feel erased from the room.”
As long as cultural warriors like Kraft take advantage of opportunities to create outrage, we will never again find such balance in American life. And that is a tragedy.