British pop stars condemn anti-Semitism after rapper Wiley’s tweets
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Hundreds of British musicians and music industry leaders have signed an open letter condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of hate in the wake of the scandal involving English rapper Wiley, who was banned from Twitter for posting anti-Semitic tweets.
Among the letter’s signers are former One Direction member Niall Horan, pop rockers The 1975, Lily Allen, Rita Ora, Lewis Capaldi and James Blunt, in addition to Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music.
“Whether it be systemic racism and racial inequality highlighted by continued police brutality in America or anti-Jewish racism promulgated through online attacks, the result is the same: suspicion, hatred and division,” reads the #NoSilenceInMusic letter, published Saturday.
“From slavery to the Holocaust we have painful collective memories. All forms of racism have the same roots — ignorance, lack of education and scapegoating.”
The display of solidarity from prominent British pop stars, songwriters, producers, managers, record labels and publishers, most of them not Jewish, comes a week after Wiley’s Twitter spree drew widespread attention. Many British Jews boycotted Twitter for 48 hours last week to protest the platform, which allowed the tweets to remain up for days before deleting them and then banning Wiley entirely. The rapper said he had been lashing out because of his anger at his Jewish manager.
The post Niall Horan, the 1975 and more British pop stars condemn anti-Semitism after rapper Wiley’s tweets appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
