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Alicia Keys was pressured to clarify that her Instagram post about wanting to learn how to paraglide was definitely not in any way an allusion to an incident in the Israel–Hamas conflict, as some extremely online commentators suggested.
On Monday, Keys shared a photo of herself with a banal caption designed to drum up a bit of social media engagement among fans and followers. “What would you do if you weren’t afraid of anything??? Tell me your truth,” she wrote before adding: “I’ve had my eyes on paragliding…👀👀.”
That post was subsequently deleted because some people decided that Keys was definitely not just making social media small talk about a potential new hobby but referring to Hamas fighters using motorized paragliders to launch an attack on a music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7. That Keys happened to be wearing a green, black, and white jacket — three colors commonly seen together, including, by chance, on the flag of Palestine — was taken as further proof that Keys was either being willfully insensitive or dog-whistling. We’re not going to share any of these insane takes here because they’re just a real exhibition of poor media literacy and/or pure bad faith; but let’s just say, even Megyn Kelly decided to get involved.
Ultimately, Keys was forced to issue a clarification on her Instagram Stories, writing, “The post I shared earlier was COMPLETELY unrelated in any way to the recent devastating loss of innocent lives. My heart has been breaking… I pray for and stand for peace.”
Keys also received a full-throated defense from her former manager, Guy Oseary, who is Israeli-American. On Instagram, Oseary wrote there was “a specific word in her post that our community at this very painful time find very triggering, but it was absolutely not connected in any way.” Oseary added: “I spoke to Alicia and she was horrified to learn what the word implied and immediately took it down. Alicia has always been a fighter for all human rights. I’ve had a front row seat for over a decade of seeing her positive influence in the world. Her humanitarian work reflects her empathy and her heart.”
For those that need further convincing that Keys was seriously just talking about conquering fears and trying something new, consider what many people on social media have pointed out: Keys probably has paragliding on the brain because she lives in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, which is right by the Torrey Pines Gliderport, where you can — seriously, you’re not gonna believe this — go paragliding.
