Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in July, 2020.
As an offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Zach Banner is paid to throw all six feet, eight inches and 350 pounds of his body between his team’s quarterback and would-be assailants. Recently, a spate of comments made by other professional athletes gave him a new cause to put his weight behind: blocking antisemitism from seeping into racial justice movements.
In a live-streamed conversation July 23 with other Pittsburgh activists hosted by Bend The Arc, Banner, who is Black and Chamorro and not Jewish, spoke about his commitment to developing his knowledge about Jewish culture as part of his broader mission both within and beyond his sport.
of special identification that noted their religion. mr. trump would not rule it out. so that was the situation as of this afternoon. reporter asks candidate, would you do this rather extreme thing? and the candidate does not say no. at least in the way the reporter wrote it up. and so yeah, that interview and that story have had a big impact today, as you can see from all the headlines about it. also from responses like this one from one american jewish group who said in response to this yahoo news article, registering everyone of a certain religion to a list? we ve seen that. it doesn t end well. it s from a jewish group called bend the arc. here s the thing. if in fact the front-runner for the republican presidential nomination really is publicly advocating that america form a national registry for muslims, we ll start issuing special badging or i.d. cards specifically for muslims, that
this yahoo news article, registering everyone of a certain religion to a list? we ve seen that. it doesn t end well. it s from a jewish group called bend the arc. here s the thing. if in fact the front-runner for the republican presidential nomination really is publicly advocating that america form a national registry for muslims, we ll start issuing special badging or i.d. cards specifically for muslims, that indeed would be a hair on fire development. but caution, right? this is a print interview. what everybody has been reacting to today was not a direct quote from mr. trump but rather the characterization of that conversation by yahoo s reporter hunter walker, who s a very good reporter. we have now obtained the actual audio recording of that portion of the interview. so you can now hear for yourself how this went. listen. france declared this state of
noted their religion. mr. trump would not rule it out. so that was the situation as of this afternoon. reporter asks candidate, would you do this rather extreme thing? and the candidate does not say no. at least in the way the reporter wrote it up. and so yeah, that interview and that story have had a big impact today, as you can see from all the headlines about it. also from responses like this one from one american jewish group who said in response to this yahoo news article, registering everyone of a certain religion to a list? we ve seen that. it doesn t end well. it s from a jewish group called bend the arc. here s the thing. if in fact the front-runner for the republican presidential nomination really is publicly advocating that america form a national registry for muslims, we ll start issuing special badging or i.d. cards specifically for muslims, that indeed would be a hair on fire development. but caution, right? this is a print interview. what everybody has been reacting