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Macklemore pledges $1 million to Palestinian relief, challenges Robert Kraft to match it
(www.nbcnews.com)
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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Interesting, thanks for sharing. I guess I was wrong.
So… this only makes me more confused, though. He shuts down Macklemore because he doesn’t want Macklemore saying “Free Palestine” in his stadium, and then turns around and supports Palestinian causes?
Christ, I must be missing something here.
Boils down to Robert Kraft did not expect the PR shit show that started because he kicked Macklemore out. This blew up super fucking fast and well outside of the control of what they expected. Ed Sheeran is scrambling too.
This looks really bad. Even Jesse Walters from Fox News is like, "he kicked him out for saying free Palestine?" He then went on to defend Robert Kraft, claiming he can kick him out for whatever reason, but even he seemed incredulous about the reason that Macklemore was kicked out.
Robert Kraft does not want this to continue to blow up because if every fucking artist besides a few of them suddenly start refusing to go to his stadium, that's gonna look bad. This gives him an out, saying, well, I donated two million dollars after the fact So it doesn't look like he's directly supporting genocide.
It's obvious to those of us who pay attention, but to anybody who's not familiar with Robert Kraft, this potentially creates an out. It all about the pr message.
It would seem that your analysis is the correct one.
Yeah, it basically boils down to PR and Robert Kraft trying to control the message. I'm not sure why he's trying to control the message. He's not giving a shit about it before, given how open he is about supporting Israel and how much money he's donated to Israel before But this clearly rattled him.
I speculated about the artist boycott, but I mean, it could also boil down to people just boycotting him for not allowing free speech, which is a lightning rod issue in the United States.
Or maybe it just spiraled so fast out of control that it just spooked him. Ultimately, $2 million dollars for him is a chump change. Hard to know at this point, unfortunately.
But now bad things are happening to him so they matter.
One of the last lines of the article
I find it hard to believe that Maklemore uses antisemitic rhetoric and imagery (I'm willing to change this opinion with evidence). I would believe he uses Anti-Israeli rhetoric and imagery.
Good! This leaves MORE Room for Noted Jew Lover Kanye West to play "Heil Hitler" at Kraft's stadiums AGAIN!
I just found this today. Still not sure what to make of the costume, but Macklemore claims he didn’t intend for it to look like a Jewish caricature
That's exactly what he looks like. I could see this being viewed as antisemitic. I do still wonder what the retoric was
It's almost definitely antisemitic, but I suspect rather than being actual hatred, it was probably just an antisemitic joke in poor taste, and more importantly, he apologized for it in... 2014.
2014! I thought that was from the current tour. People born that year will be teenagers next year. Robert Kraft associates with people who would fuck those teenagers.
You become a teenager at ten, we are in 2026. 2026 - 2014 = 12.
That was not my experience, thirteen for me. Because of the teen in it. Where does your idea come from?
Twenties start at 20, Thirties start at 30 etc. But i see the downvotes and have no reason to argue. If teens start at thirteen fine by me. Could also be a cultural thing, never heard anyone say what you're saying but makes sense.
I thought it was 13 because it goes eleven, twelve, thirteen
But then different languages are different when it comes to the numbers, in Estonian we have "teismeline" as the word for teenager and you could argue it starts at 11 because the numbers are üksteist, kaksteist and so on (11, 12)
Yeah i think cultural/language difference is the root cause. Either way it's not really important or that relevant. In Dutch the word for a teen literally translates to 'tenner'. But, like English, the first 12 words of the numbers are base 12, and only from thirteen does the 10 come back in the name. You generally go to high school at 11 or 12, so the age 13 has no significant meaning here.
Slightly related, in politics of other countries i do see that age more often, for example Ursula von der Leyen just announced she wants 13 to be the legal age to use social media. For me and i think many people here that seems like random age, but in this light it does make a lot of sense; it is the first age that has teen in it.
From what I read, he was supposedly trying to dress up in a costume inspired by Humpty Hump (of Humpty Dance fame) and wasn't aware enough at the time to realize how fucked up it came across.
the article says
so to make nobody recognize him. the facial features do seem like things you’d grab off the closet in a quick decision to look the most drastically different easily. the rest of the outfit, though? … ooof. i’m willing to trust him if there’s nothing else
Yes, all I'm saying is the inspiration was supposedly Humpty Hump, a rapper who famously disguises himself with a big fake nose. It seems totally plausible that he was going for that look without realizing it came across wrong.
It's racist because he didn't do blackface.
Macklemore is not the best messenger on this, but who is without sin?
I definitely wore a Halloween costume In high school I regret. I was a Sultan; thank God I didn’t try to bronze my skin…
Now you've got "Problematic" by Bo Burnham stuck in my head.
I wrapped a sheet around myself and called myself the Ayatollah and did a bad Arabic accent. In Australia in the 90s. Still bugs me that I was not only being racist, but completely ignorant of the Iranian people.
Kraft it's deeply pro Isreal and supports organizations directly that have stated they define antisemitism as any criticism of Isreal. you don't like the yearly budget Isreal passes on Library maintenance? antisemitism. You think Isreal needs to secure better water use rights for a particular Israeli city? antisemitism. better not.
His PR team specifically chose the words "support the region" and ended the sentence with "I have supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians and have brought young Palestinians and Israelis together to build businesses, create jobs"
For example, financing bulldozing a Palestinian village, building an illegal settlement of terrorists, then hiring some Palestinians for pennies to clean the gardens, can technically match the statement
The Israeli Gaza "humanitarian" foundation let thousands of people die of starvation, also. Any donation to the ghf technically counted as Palestine aid, but it's like if during WW2 there was a fundraising for food in Auschwitz
Youre missing the fact that 1 million isnt even .01% of his wealth he gave away pennies
I did not miss that, no.
It's just PR bro. Trying to save face after the fact.
That 1 million (from each) will be tax deductible and not cost either of them anything (as long as they both earn at least a million this year, which they will).
It's also only a limited number of charities that are official enough to take such a sum, meaning the money will get shunted through approved US channels (so that it stays out of the hands of "Hamas" or whatever the US and Israel see as Hamas today).
$2 million for a gesture probably doesn't matter much to him.
Especially when his actions point to him being a Zionist, the question becomes how much money has Kraft spent furthering Zionist ideals in comparison? Does it make $2 million USD look like a joke?
PR