LaKeith Stanfield apologizes after Clubhouse chat room he moderated turned anti-Semitic

• LaKeith Stanfield released an apology for moderating a Clubhouse chat that turned anti-Semitic.
• The Daily Beast reported that the Clubhouse chat pushed conspiracies about Jewish people.
• The chat reportedly discussed Louis Farrakhan, a Nation of Islam leader accused of anti-Semitism.

LaKeith Stanfield issued an apology after participating in a Clubhouse discussion that turned anti-Semitic.

In a statement shared to Instagram, the "Judas and the Black Messiah" actor apologized for not shutting down the chat when it became hostile.

"Yesterday, I entered an online chat room on Clubhouse about the teachings of Louis Farrakhan. When the room's participants noticed me, I was quickly made a moderator of this room," wrote Stanfield. "At some point during the dialogue, the discussion took a very negative turn when several users made abhorrent anti-Semitic statements, and at that point, I should have either shut down the discussion or removed myself from it entirely."

Stanfield also said he doesn't condone hate speech or anti-Semitism.

"I condemn hate speech and discriminatory views of every kind. I unconditionally apologize for what went on in that chat room and for allowing my presence there to give a platform to hate speech. I am not an anti-Semite, nor do I condone any of the beliefs discussed in that chat room," he wrote.

A representative for Stanfield did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

The actor's Instagram apology acknowledges the same events reported by The Daily Beast on Friday about the chat on the audio social media app, including users sharing conspiracy theories about Jewish people and praising Adolf Hitler.

The Clubhouse chat was created after a similar discussion had become so inflammatory that the moderator shut it down, according to The Daily Beast. Some of those participants started a second chat to continue the conversation, naming the chat, "Someone Ended the Room About Farrakhan."

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Louis Farrakhan "has been a notable extremist figure, railing against Jews, white people and the LGBT community."

Some of the hurtful Clubhouse conversations included theories about Jewish people controlling the slave trade and Farrakhan's remark comparing Jews to termites, according to The Daily Beast, but sources told the outlet that Stanfield himself never said anything anti-Semitic during the conversation.

However, the outlet reported Stanfield shrugged off a question from an upset user asking why he was involved in the chat.

On Thursday, Stanfield addressed the anti-Semitic conversation in another Clubhouse chat moderated by a panel of Jewish educators.

"It's been a crazy couple of 48 hours. I've been in a couple rooms where a lot of s--- has been discussed and talked about, very heightened emotional states," Stanfield reportedly said. "It's been very enlightening and interesting to me, I never really knew that this debate existed in this way about identity, the origins of Judaism in Jewishness, and how many different interpretations there are different things, whether or not it's a religion and ethno-religion or what it is a faith race."

Stanfield reportedly called the Clubhouse chats "derailed."

"Someone would say something that was without a doubt anti-Semitic… and then instead of acknowledging why it was anti-Semitic, it would just go back to that original person, and then it would kind of repeat what they were saying, they clearly weren't listening to us," said Stanfield.