Julian Edelman Offered To Meet With Meyers Leonard Following His Use Of An Anti-Semitic Slur

The Miami Heat suspended Meyers Leonard this week following his use of a slur toward Jewish people on a Twitch stream, and as the situation develops, Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman posted an open letter to Leonard on Twitter inviting Leonard to a Shabbat dinner to “offer some perspective” on how “casual ignorance” can often be harder to get rid of in society than overtly hateful speech.

“I get the sense that you didn’t use that word out of hate, more out of ignorance,” Edelman wrote. “That’s what makes it so destructive.”

In addition to the Heat sending him away from the team indefinitely, Twitch also banned him, and FaZe Clan, the gaming organization he owned a stake in, cut ties with him. Leonard released an apology after his use of the slur went viral, claiming he was ignorant to the history of the word and that he was wrong to use it. Still, the NBA is conducting an investigation, and the Heat have thoroughly denounced his use of what the team called “hate speech.”

However, Edelman, who is Jewish, is extending an olive branch to Leonard in hopes to educate the Heat center and give him a more nuanced perspective on the history of the word and its hateful nature. Edelman did something similar when DeSean Jackson made anti-Semitic remarks last fall, inviting Jackson to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.