R&B singer and actor Tyrese Gibson made headlines this week for a new role he seems to have taken on: spreader of political misinformation.
Gibson, often referred to simply as Tyrese, delivered a tirade aimed at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris last week during a livestream on Instagram with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. The “Sweet Lady” singer’s remarks featured disinformation I’ve seen deployed by influencers in the extremely online, conservative-friendly American Descendants of Slavery movement, known as ADOS, as they’ve sought to turn Black people against the Biden administration over bogus claims that Democrats have disadvantaged African Americans to benefit immigrants and other ethnic groups in the United States.
In essence, Gibson — who stars in the newly released thriller film “1992” — claimed Biden signed an “Asian hate crime bill” but is unwilling to pass a similar bill to protect Black people.
Gibson said:
It is a crime bill that was signed into law that protects Asians at all costs. Where is that same f—ing law to be signed into … law when it comes to Black and brown people? Because what you’re doing is — President Biden and Kamala Harris — what you’re doing is, you’re saying that Black and brown people will continue to be disposable.
He used the phrase “Asian hate crime bill” multiple times in his rant but, reader, there is no such thing. Perhaps, Gibson merely read headlines of news articles describing the real bill in shorthand as an Asian hate crime bill. But in reality, Congress reacted to the raft of anti-Asian attacks in 2021, during the Covid pandemic, with the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act. As NPR noted, this bill simply instructed and provided tools for the Justice Department to expedite the review of Covid-related hate crimes — not merely those committed against Asian people, but all Covid-related hate crimes. The word “Asian” appears only in the opening paragraphs of the law to…
Read the full article here