ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In October 2022, amid the heart of the schedule for Michigan football, as the Wolverines were in-between tunnel incidents with Penn State and Michigan State, running back Donovan Edwards found himself in some hot water.
Edwards retweeted what appeared to be an anti-Semitic tweet originally posted by rapper Kanye West which read: ‘Jewish people will literally tell you that they want you to kill your own and humiliate your women simply because they have children to feed.’
Shortly after, a firestorm brewed, and while Edwards had apologized shortly after, on Friday, he took it upon himself after his press conference to clarify his position.
“I got one thing one more thing to mention, too, about the tweet, as well. I find that was a great thing for me because it is a learning and building experience for me,” Edwards said. “The way I look at that is I don’t have any type of hatred, I don’t disgrace anybody. I have love for everybody. All people. I don’t care who you are: Black, white, Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic. I don’t care, because why? Everybody’s God’s children in the eyes of God. There’s nothing in the Bible that says that only one specific race can make it to the heaven gates. Everybody can. So the thing that I’ll learn from that is I can’t allow people to — I can’t allow a caption to define who I am.
“Because if I can explain for myself that and that in that context that we’re — I don’t I feel like nobody like listen to what Kanye West said. And what Kanye West said is that people who are the higher-ups, we all know who higher-ups are. It’s like Coach Harbaugh, he’s a higher-up. And what he says goes. And that context is that this, for me, I’m a Black male, and I look at that very specifically. And it’s like, Black people are getting diminished as who — we’re looking at celebrities and they’re telling us this and that. And we’re listening to these rap lyrics. So if like we’re depriving ourselves, and we all know this, if Black people are depriving ourselves of race, calling girls out the names, talking about robbing, stealing, and killing, that’s not good.
“So that’s why I retweeted what I retweeted. It’s not about I hate Jewish people, I don’t hate Jewish people. Black people are Jewish, too. Just like, there’s many other races that are other races. I don’t hate Buddhist people. I don’t hate Muslim people. I love all races because all religions are right. All religions have the same thing, and that is to love God and to treat your neighbor accordingly. And to love each other the way that you love yourself. So, I’ve learned a lot from that, and that’s why I don’t want to deprive myself of who I am, because I know who I am.
“If you ask people in this building, who really know me, they will say I’m a great person. And I believe that myself to just like, how Isaiah has his ‘Jesus is King’ hat on — Yeshua is king to me. So I believe that with my whole heart. I apologize to anybody who I may have hurt and understand my actions and allow me to grow from it. It’s taught me a lot. So thankful that that happened as well.”
Shortly after the controversy, it was announced that the team would be taking a trip to the local Holocaust museum to continue its education on what Jewish people have been through in recent history. That trip took place earlier this offseason, along with an optional visit to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. during the team’s spring trip there.
Edwards discussed what he learned from those visits, and insists that if people understood his heart, then they’d understand that he’d gain a little more grace.
“What I gained from it, truth be told is that I’ve hurt people, and I can live with that, because now I can build people up,” Edwards said. “I may have made people’s trust not be there for me, but I don’t care, because people don’t know who I really am. They don’t know the context of what I saw and what I retweeted the real video, not what the person said about it, make it happen. And I’m not gonna lie, I was kind of — I’m not gonna say what I got to say because it’s alright, but I’ve learned a lot, to be honest with you. And I know that if I continue to be who I am, I could gain the love back again, that people’s trust back. I’m never going to change who I am for anybody, honestly. My goal is to always do right by people. My goal is to go above and beyond for people and to help homeless people out. One of my main goals in life is to get into real estate so I can help all people who have minimum incomes. I want to buy like a townhouse, and like make the rent like $250 — a nice apartment.”
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