Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson is under fire for controversial, anti-Semitic quotes that were posted to his Instagram account. One of the quotes posted to his account was attributed to Adolf Hitler, while Jackson also endorsed a speech from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has long been considered an anti-Semitic leader.
One of the quotes read: “… the Jews will blackmail America. [They] will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.”
After coming under fire, Jackson attempted to backtrack on his comments and said that he did not intend to show any heat towards the Jewish community.
“Anyone who feels I have hate towards the Jewish community took my post the wrong way,” Jackson wrote on his Instagram story. “I have no hatred in my heart towards no one!! Equality equality.”
The Eagles have not officially commented on the matter.
However, former Eagles team president Joe Banner addressed the situation and said that if Jackson was not a black player that teams may look at the severity of his comments more.
“If a white player said anything about AA’s [African-Americans] as outrageous as what DeSean Jackson said about Jews tonight there would at least be a serious conversation about cutting him and a need for a team meeting to discuss,” Banner wrote. “Which would be totally appropriate. Absolutely indefensible.”
Back in 2013, the Eagles were forced to deal with a situation where wide receiver Riley Cooper was captured on camera using the n-word at a country music concert. He was fined and forced to undergo counseling but was never cut by the team.
It will be interesting to see how the Eagles decide to handle the situation involving Jackson at a time when racial tensions are at an incredibly volatile time.
