The book series that was adapted into the antisemitic film shared by basketball player Kyrie Irving is a bestseller on Amazon, Apple Books and Barnes & Noble in the United States, The Jerusalem Post has found.
Entries in the Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America series, which promotes the conspiracy theory that Jewish people are imposters who stole the heritage of black people, are the number one best selling book or audio book in three categories on Amazon: "Religious Intolerance & Persecution," "Black & African American Biographies," and "People of African Descent & Black Studies." Versions of the books are also the "most wished for" in these categories.
The first book, by author Ronald Dalton Jr., beat out former president Barack Obama's autobiography A Promised Land in the "Black & African American Biographies" category. In the "People of African Descent & Black Studies," versions of the books are in every slot in the top ten besides number 4 and 8, which were won by the audiobook and hardcopy of Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story and the number 9 best seller, the audiobook for The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley.
On Apple Books, Hebrews to Negroes was number 9 on the list of top audiobooks. The book was also found to be number 69 on Barnes & Noble's top 100 bestselling books.
Paperback versions of the books are being sold for $28-35 and audiobooks for around $9.
'White Jews knows that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep Americas secret the Jews will blackmail America."
Fake Adolf Hitler quote featured in Hebrews to Negroes
Antisemitic conspiracy theory film and books
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the films and books engage in numerous antisemitic theories and tropes, including those about Jewish power, greed and control of institutions such as media. Leaning into the Khazar theory, it describes Jews as engaging in a cover-up to "prevent Black people from knowing their 'true' identity," writes the ADL.
The books reportedly features passages from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and a fake quote falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler, often used to absolve the Nazi leader of his crimes.
“Because the white Jews knows that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep Americas secret the Jews will blackmail America. They will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were," reads the quote, which is often shared online by acolytes of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and followers of the Nation of Islam.
The premise that black people are actually Jewish people was recently alluded to by American rapper Kanye West in his "death con 3" tweet, when he said that he "actually can’t be antisemitic because black people are actually Jew [sic] also."
"You can’t be antisemite when you know you are Semite."
Kanye West
Kyrie Irving antisemitism scandal
West repeated this belief in a defense of Irving on Thursday, saying "You can’t be antisemite when you know you are Semite."
Irving drew a wave of criticism and accusations of antisemitism after sharing a link to the 2018 film on social media.
Irving's team, The Brooklyn Nets, suspended him for no fewer than five games Thursday night, saying they were "dismayed" that Irving did not denounce antisemitism when speaking to reporters.
The basketball player later apologized for sharing the film and had also previously committed to donating funds to combat "hate and intolerance."