Photo by Jeff Curry, USA Today
Cal Football: Mitchell Schwartz Offers Message to Ex-Bears Teammate DeSean Jackson
Without ever mentioning fellow Cal alum DeSean Jackson by name, Kansas City Chiefs star offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz delivered a strong, well-crafted response to anti-Semitism in an Instagram post on Thursday.
“My hope is we can use this moment to shed light on and bring awareness to the hate and oppression the Jewish Community still faces while standing strong with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Schwartz wrote. “We can only have change if we denounce racism and bias in all its forms.
“Our platforms as athletes are a powerful too, and with them comes immense responsibility. We can all do better.”
Jackson drew widespread criticism early this week for a series of posts on his Instagram page where he used fake quotes attributed to Adolf Hitler, saying “white Jews will blackmail America. (They) will extort America, their plan for world domination won't work if the Negroes know who they were.”
Jackson, a 33-year-old wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, made a video apology on Instagram on Tuesday, saying, in part, “I never want to put any race down or any people down.”
That came after the Eagles condemned his original message as “offensive, harmful and absolutely appalling.” The organization suggested it “will take appropriate action” on the matter but has not yet had any additional response.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie's documentary film company announced Thursday the completion of its first project, "The Meaning of Hitler."
Schwartz, 31, who helped the Chiefs win the Super Bowl last season, arrived at Cal in the fall of 2007, which was Jackson’s final college season. Schwartz red-shirted that season while Jackson caught 65 passes as a junior before being taken in the second round of the 2008 NFL draft.
Schwartz, who is Jewish, said he values the racial and religious diversity in NFL locker rooms, but argued out that anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States, suggesting, “Tragedy after tragedy, the number of hate crimes against Jews has reached record levels in the past few years.”
Others have reached out directly to Jackson, hoping to provide him greater understanding of the Jewish experience.
New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman, also Jewish, invited Jackson to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.
"I have seen DeSean play in his career, make outstanding football plays, we've communicated over social media. I've got nothing but respect for his game. I know he said some ugly things, but I do see an opportunity to have a conversation," Edelman wrote on Instagram.
“Anti-Semitism is one of the oldest forms of hatred. It's rooted in ignorance and fear.”
Edelman said he does not wish to distract from the Black Lives Matter movement and he would welcome visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture with Jackson.
"What we need to do is, we need to listen," he wrote. "We need to learn. We need to act. We need to have these uncomfortable conversations if we're going to have real change."
Meanwhile, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor has invited Jackson to visit Auschwitz, where Hitler ordered an estimated 1.1 million Jews killed during World War II.
Edward Mosberg, whose late wife survived her imprisonment at Auschwitz, called Jackson's posts "heartbreaking and so deeply wrong" in an open letter, according to CNN.
"I would like to invite you to join me at the sites of these German Nazi death camps to understand what evil truly is and why sharing quotes of the man behind this evil is so offensive to us all," Mosberg wrote.
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