A social media post about Jesus by actor Jamie Foxx sparked a mini-controversy over the weekend and forced him to apologize, although many of his supporters said the spat was all about nothing.
It all began on Friday when Foxx posted an Instagram graphic with the message, “They killed this dude name Jesus … What do you think they’ll do to you?” It included the hashtags “#fakefriends” and “#fakelove.”
Some commenters believed the “they” in the post alluded to Jewish people, but other commenters defended Foxx’s post, saying it was a common phrase that referenced Jesus being killed despite being perfect.
The website A Wider Frame, which focuses on news within the Jewish community, criticized the post and called it a “horrifically antisemitic message to his 16.7 million followers.”
Foxx eventually deleted the post. A day later, he wrote on Instagram, “I want to apologize to the Jewish community and everyone who was offended by my post.” Foxx said he posted the message after being “betrayed by a fake friend and that’s what I meant with ‘they’ not anything more.”
His apology had plenty of defenders.
“It’s so clear what you were saying,” one person wrote.
“You don’t owe anybody an apology. We know what you meant,” another person wrote.
Many said the phrase is common within the black community.
“This kinda shows how out of touch most people are with the black community,” a third person wrote. “The phrase ‘you saw what they did to Jesus’ ISN’T about the Jewish community. The term is always used in reference to fake friends or betrayal. Mostly in reference [to] Judas, and putting trust in the wrong people, IE friends with bad intentions. The phrase has always been used to refer to THAT. ‘They’ is used generally and not about a specific group of people. He’s speaking generally. There’s nothing antisemitic about this.”
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Omar Vega/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
