A Miami Heat Player Says A Bad Word, And The World Goes Nuts

A player for the Miami Heat has gotten in hot water for using an anti-Semitic term on a video where he is playing Call of Duty: Warzone.

The word he used is kike, which is so rarely used in today’s world that I was surprised that a youngster like Leonard had ever heard of it.

Leonard, of course, is paying a big price, having been suspended by his team and dropped by some of his sponsors, according to news reports.

The NBA is performing an “investigation,” which they could actually do by simply having one of their lawyers watch Leonard’s Call of Duty video.

I looked inside my own soul to see if I was bothered in any way by Leonard’s comment.

The answer was no.

I couldn’t care less.

I don’t feel my position as a Jew in American society is threatened even the slightest bit by the fact that Meyers Leonard used that word.

I feel guilty, though, because aren’t you supposed to feel offended when somebody says something offensive?

Aren’t you supposed to have your feelings hurt?

Aren’t you supposed to hang your head in shame, because your identity has been disparaged?

Nope.

Not me.

Not over this.

Leonard, it turns out, was the only player to remain standing while his teammates knelt to support Black Lives Matter during the playing of the National Anthem at an NBA game.

That’s his business.

Of course, the political correctness police are using his failure to kneel as a way of showing that Meyers Leonard is a bad man.

Instead of playing for the Miami Heat, incidentally owned by a Jewish businessman, the insinuation is that Leonard should just disappear, and play both basketball and Call of Duty: Warzone on a desert island somewhere.

Can we all get a grip?

I am more bothered by the fact that young people play a dumb, violent video game like Call of Duty, which cheapens the value of human life.

I am also bothered by the fact that people actually make videos of themselves playing these games, and that still other people waste precious brainwaves watching such videos.

Just for the record, the word “kike” is derived from the Yiddish word kikel, or circle, which is what illiterate Jewish immigrants a century ago used in order to sign their papers as they were processed through Ellis Island.

They would make a circle on the page, and the immigration officials developed the term kike, nasty at the time, as a way of demeaning Jews who couldn’t sign their names.

I thought you’d find that interesting.

But back to Leonard.

In today’s world, there is a belief that “microaggressions” tear at the fabric of the human soul, and if you get enough of them, you will become depressed, demeaned, droopy, downhearted, and a few other words that start with d.

I don’t buy it.

To me, it’s just schoolyard taunting. Everybody engages in it — Blacks, whites, and even, as it turns out, Meyers Leonard, whom, to tell you the truth, I had never heard of before this incident.

I feel sad for Leonard.

He is in for a whirlwind of pain, punishment, and re-education.

He probably had no opinion one way or another about Jews, although he probably has warm feelings toward his team owner, Mickey Arison, who signs his paychecks.

But when he gets done paying the price for his rather meaningless act, I’m sure he’s going to have no use for Jews.

Just as I have no use for people who turn verbal molehills into mountains.

I want everyone to know that I couldn’t care less.