LaKeith Stanfield Criticized for Moderating Anti-Semitic Clubhouse Room

Oscar-nominated actor LaKeith Stanfield is under fire for moderating a Clubhouse chat and letting users spew anti-semitic comments and conspiracy theories about Jewish people.

According to TMZ, there was a “Did Min. Farrakhan Tarnish His Legacy by Antisemitic?” chat that was closed by the moderator before a new one “Someone Ended the Room About Farrakhan” popped up, and LaKeith was one of the moderators. One of the listeners apparently said that the chat was “worse than things that I’ve read or heard about neo-Nazi’s saying.”

According to the Daily Beast, a Jewish woman in the audience asked Stanfield why he refused to address the hate speech. The actor allegedly responded by saying that he did not want to confront the issue. “He told her, ‘This is probably an emotional kind of room for you, tensions are running high, and I understand this is a very heated room.’ Then he just kind of danced around it not really saying anything.”

The next day Stanfield joined a room with a panel of Jewish moderators who spoke on the previous day’s Clubhouse room. Stanfield admitted that he did not do enough to stop the hate speech.

“It’s been a crazy couple 48 hours,” Stanfield said in the chat. “I’ve been in a couple rooms where a lot of shit has been discussed and talked about, very heightened emotional states. 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.”