On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that Lakeith Stanfield had moderated a Clubhouse chat room in which many users espoused anti-Semitic beliefs or conspiracy theories, noting that while the Oscar-nominated actor didn’t say anything anti-Semitic himself, he also didn’t leave the room or put a stop to the hate speech. Now, however, Stanfield has issued an apology and attempted to explain himself.
“I unconditionally apologize for what went on in that chat room, and for allowing my presence there to give a platform to hate speech,” he wrote on Instagram. “I am not an anti-Semite, nor do I condone any of the beliefs discussed in that chat room.”
“Yesterday I entered an online chat room on ClubHouse about the teachings of Louis Farrakhan,” he explained. “When the room’s participants noticed me, I was quickly made a moderator of this room. At some point during the dialogue the discussion took a very negative turn when several users made abhorrent anti-Semitic statements and at that point, I should have either shut down the discussion or removed myself from it entirely.”
“I condemn hate speech and discriminatory views of every kind,” Stanfield wrote.
The Daily Beast also reported that the actor — who has been very active on Clubhouse thus far — took part in another chat on the app last week. According to Vulture, the second chat was “moderated by Jewish educators attempting to address the detrimental rhetoric, during which Stanfield acknowledged that, as the moderator of the ‘derailed’ room, he needed to pay ‘attention to what is actually being discussed, and determine if that’s a discussion that you really want to get into.’”
“It’s been very enlightening and interesting to me, I never really knew that this debate existed in this way about identity, the origins of Judaism in Jewishness, and how many different interpretations there are different things, whether or not it’s a religion and ethno-religion or what it is a faith race,” Stanfield reportedly said during the second Clubhouse chat.
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