The bigot is the hero. The Jew is the bigot. This is not a normal reaction, and I am done pretending it is.

Ed Sheeran’s promoter announced Monday morning that Macklemore is off the rest of the US tour. Last week I asked Sheeran to do that himself, after his opener spent two nights at MetLife in a keffiyeh leading a stadium in “Free Palestine” while Jewish families walked out. I got the result. I did not get the decision. It took about six hours for the story to flip. Macklemore lost eight shows and gained a movement. Pink, who is Jewish and spent the week saying the Jewish families in those seats should not have to be scared, was informed that she supports genocide. He is the martyr. She is the problem. Everyone seems fine with this.

I am not fine with this.

Ed Sheeran Handed the Mic to the Man He Fired

Robert Kraft, who owns the Patriots and Gillette Stadium, confirmed he barred Macklemore from Foxborough, and Macklemore says Kraft “rallied some of the other stadium owners” until Sheeran had to choose between his opener and eight of the ten remaining shows. Sheeran has said nothing.

Except he did, and we know it only because the man he cut posted it. Sheeran told him, privately, that “the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people,” and then could not get past “I don’t take sides.” The true thing, said once, in private, to the one person who would publish it as an indictment, and never to the families who left. The only Ed Sheeran on the record this week is Macklemore’s Ed Sheeran.

That is the vacuum the rest of this week needed. Yes, a billionaire made the call I wanted the headliner to make, and yes, that is the version that lets everyone scream censorship. And yes, a few rich men deciding who gets a microphone in their buildings is worth being nervous about, even when I like the result. They are wrong about the man and right about the mechanism, and the mechanism exists because Ed Sheeran would not open his mouth. Ed. You let Robert Kraft take the decision, Macklemore take the microphone, and the families who walked out take nothing. You are the........

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