In an August 21 interview with a soccer YouTube channel called FilthyFellas,
British rapper Wiley claimed it’s not anti-Semitic to call the Jewish community “very powerful.”
Wiley, born Richard Kylea Cowie Jr., was discussing getting banned from various social media platforms after he issued a series of tweets in July about the Jewish community, including one that read, “Jewish people you make me sick.”
“The Jewish community do own a lot of s— on this plane and they do with other societies run the Earth,” Wiley said. “They own everything. So there’s no point when I say that you say I’m anti-Semitic.”
He later added, “I’m not anti-Semitic if I say the Jewish community are very powerful and they own this and they own that. I’m not wrong. If I said there are some sheikhs and they’re rich and they’ve got oil, am I wrong?”
Earlier in the interview, Wiley claimed the only people he has had issues working with are some in the Jewish community. “The Jewish community does stick together,” Wiley said. “I’m not saying everyone’s rich as hell … there’s rich and poor in every bracket.”
He also brought up Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef comparing Blacks to monkeys in 2018.
“I’m not saying everyone in the Jewish community agreed with him, but he said it,” Wiley said. “No police went to his house, they didn’t shut down his Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and when I saw that I learned something: you can’t make somebody care about your history more than they care about their own.”
Wiley suggested he was shut down on social media platforms for speaking out against an “unfair world” on behalf of his people. “Twitter, shut down. Who owns Twitter?” Wiley said. “Instagram, shut down. Who owns Instagram? Facebook, shut down, we all know who owns Facebook. YouTube, shut down. Google, who owns that? So that’s the first lot of people who have shown who they are.”
He did acknowledge during the interview that he could have worded his July tweets differently. He also claimed during the interview that a fake tweet of him denying the Holocaust had been circulating on social media.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Wiley needs to stop, just stop. At the risk of stating the obvious, its #antisemitic to suggest Jews have all the power in the world. He does little more than reveal the depth of his bigotry as he tries to defend his prior hateful comments.”
Wiley needs to stop, just stop. At the risk of stating the obvious, its #antisemitic to suggest Jews have all the power in the world. He does little more than reveal the depth of his bigotry as he tries to defend his prior hateful comments. https://t.co/Gdd1lqQj8h
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) August 24, 2020
The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted, “Ever notice some people demand that their rights be protected by all, but when Jews stand up for their rights and dignity?—It’s a conspiracy!”
Ever notice some people demand that their rights be protected by all, but when Jews stand up for their rights and dignity?—It’s a conspiracy! https://t.co/513cpdlbjY via @jewishchron
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) August 24, 2020
In a July 29 interview with Sky News, Wiley said it was “silly” to claim it’s anti-Semitic to say that Jews are powerful in business; he did acknowledge that he shouldn’t have generalized all Jewish people in his tweets.
“I want to apologize for generalizing, number one, and I want to apologize for comments that were looked at as anti-Semitic,” Wiley said at the time. “My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people.”
He then said that his former manager John Woolf – who is Jewish – as well as Jewish lawyers and “the system” have all “made me feel angry and upset because they are showing me their systemic racism and privilege that they’re allowed to use on us.”
Earlier in August, the British Cabinet Office told the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism that it is reviewing Wiley’s Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). Wiley told Sky News that his MBE is in Woolf’s possession; a spokesperson for Woolf told Sky News that Wiley could pick up the MBE at any time.
