Why are anti-racism forces silent on anti-Semitism?

[Auburn85 436]

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/511463-why-are-anti-racism-forces-silent-on-anti-semitism

 

Quote

 

The recent spate of African American celebrities disseminating anti-Semitic conspiracies and images on social media has grabbed national attention and has many wondering: Where are anti-racism advocates when the offense is anti-Semitism? 

The expressions of Jew-hatred, including Twitter tirades glorifyingviolence, are not limited to athletes and artists with massive social media followers. Rodney Muhammad, head of the Philadelphia NAACP, shared amessage attributed to a neo-Nazi. 

Among the few anti-racism activists who have spoken up, former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar admirably called out the “shocking lack of massive indignation” against anti-Semitism in Hollywood and sports and warned of the blind spot’s deleterious impact on the social-justice movement. 

Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation, charged that athletes’ comments demand a better response, not from the “craven right that abides it in their own ranks — and not as an excuse for anti-blackness.”

Zirin is right. With anti-Semitism on the rise and a coalitional social movement under way, public intellectuals — and African Americans in particular — shoulder a heavy burden. What they say matters; they influence broader culture in ways some may not appreciate.

Consider the roots of ideas disseminated by celebrity artist Nick Cannon on a recent episode of his podcast, “Cannon’s Class.” The show was hosted at Howard University, where Cannon is pursuing his graduate studies. Cannon’s guest, hip-hop artist Professor Griff, was promoting his book, which apparently was informed by illiberal views including the “Cress Theory of Color Confrontation.”

In the 1970s, psychiatrist and Howard professor Dr. Frances Cress Welsingarticulated a theory of racism that ascribes white supremacy to white people’s biological inferiority. Unsurprisingly, proponents of such views identify “melanin-deficient” Jews as uniquely culpable in white supremacy’s atrocities.  

Welsing and like-minded activists have occupied a significant place in recent Black American experience, with all its competing visions of racial solidarity and political consciousness for Black liberation. 

Despite mainstream rejection of her unscientific anti-white theory, many African Americans outside the ivory tower still embrace Welsing. In peer-reviewed journals, Welsing has been praised for providing the “intellectual antecedent of critical race studies.” 

Her devotees appear in popular media and promote her views in culturalavenues. “The Breakfast Club” — recently lauded as “must-listen radio for racial reckoning” — addressed Cannon’s imbroglio sympathetically as mere discussion of an esteemed psychiatrist’s theory.  

Commendably, Cannon met with a rabbi and reacted to Bari Weiss’s “How to Fight Anti-Semitism.” Yet he also is effusive in reviewing the work of John Henrik Clarke, a key proponent of Afroncentrism who notoriously injected Islam-bashing and anti-Semitism in his lectures and community organizing in the 1990s. Then, historians, psychologists and others denounced Clarke’s and Cress’s notions of race relations, rife with homophobia and misogyny.  

In 1992, filmmaker and Harvard intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr. identified a new form of anti-Semitism taking hold among educated, younger Black Americans in a New York Times piece, “Black Demagogues and Pseudo-Scholars.” Gates scorned intellectuals affiliated with the Nation of Islam for exploiting their position within academe to propagate anti-Semitism, and he decried those peddling Cress’s ideas “as the bid of one black elite to supplant another.” He wrote that this “requires us, in short, to see anti-Semitism as a weapon in the raging battle of who will speak for Black America — those who have sought common cause with others or those who preach a barricaded withdrawal into racial authenticity.”  

Where are such rebukes today?

Journalist Jemele Hill captured one explanation for the reticence to condemn Jew-hatred in her acknowledgment of anti-Semitism’s troubling acceptability. 

Some fear that a stronger rebuke would stoke division and/or fuel the anti-racism movement’s detractors. This impulse to remain focused on the overwhelming injustice and state violence against Black Americans is understandable.

At the same time, we are not talking about offhand tweets, and hatred undermines progressive movements, a perspective that NFL star Zach Banner has advocated. Banner joined the Pittsburgh community just before a white supremacist targeted the Tree of Life Synagogue, in part because of its progressive congregation’s involvement in intersectional justice work. In clarifying his message, Banner implored Black Americans not to step on the backs of another minority. He aptly demonstrates how to feel rage because Black bodies are under threat and also empathize with Jewish insecurities. 

The historical record of Jewish wellbeing during global pandemics, political or social upheaval, and economic uncertainty does not exactly inspire optimism for American Jews. This brings us to the “Farrakhan factor.” Last month, journalist Roland Martin asked celebrity philosopher Cornel West about the contradiction presented by antiracism advocates’ embrace of a misogynist, homophobic, anti-Semitic bigot such as Louis Farrakhan, who was trending on Twitter. West ascribed public perceptions of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism to corporate media. He disingenuously dwelled on two of Farrakhan’s 1984 statements that have been contested as distortions and do nothing to negate Farrakhan’s decades-long Jew-hatred.

In fact, at the 2010 Black Agenda Forum, Farrakhan wedded a colorist attack and anti-Semitic conspiracy to delegitimize President Obama, saying he had been “selected” for office by Goldman Sachs because of his light skin color. The response from West and others seated with Farrakhan at the table? Silence.  

Sports commentator Shannon Sharpe, reacting to DeSean Jackson’srecent anti-Semitic posts, also defended Farrakhan, by implausibly arguing that Farrakhan is simply not anti-Semitic. Farrakhan's role in organizing might render him too big to ignore, but his hateful ideas must be confronted. Today, everyone is accountable. 

Scholars, too, have used anti-Semitic language to disparage their opponents. On MSNBC, an ordained sociologist decried Justice Clarence Thomas’s 2013 vote to invalidate elements of the Voting Rights Act. The scholar lamented, “A symbolic Jew has invited a metaphoric Hitler to commit Holocaust and genocide upon his own people.”  

When celebrities and activists disseminate racist anti-Semitic conspiracies and call on “clergy, experts and spokespersons” for course-correction, public intellectuals should show up. Honesty  and self-accountability are the minimum. 

Unchecked, anti-Semitism in popular culture cross-pollinates online to amplify forces antithetical to justice. As African Americans seek solutions to their suffering, they deserve not to encounter hateful ideas disguised as knowledge and truth. How illuminating would it be for Cannon or The Breakfast Club to host not a rabbi but a respected scholar who has challenged the “Melanin Madness” and its attendant anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist ideas that enjoy far too much exposure today?   

The history of Black-Jewish relations is fraught with mutual harm and disappointment beyond anti-Semitism. Everyone has a role to play in healing. Fulfilling the anti-racism movement’s objectives requires us to shine a light on the weaponization of anti-Semitism, who it serves and its impact on the partnership between two historically oppressed communities in their quests for security and justice. 

Rachel Kantz Feder, Ph.D., is a historian of modern Iraq focused on the influence of human ideas and a lecturer on Middle Eastern history at Tel Aviv University. She recently was a visiting researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., examining the roles of religion, psychology and psychiatry in decolonization movements.

 

 

[DKW 86 7,892]

Wow, are you about to get it. All the cool kids know you can always blame a Jew. Always. The Neolibs in America all have a profound hatred for Jews. It is one of the still perfunctory knee jerk reactions from them. It is near 100% participation event. If only those pesky Jews, full of hatred, would just lineup And march into the ovens...I meant the sea. You know there are millions of Muslims that are convinced and pray for the day when they march the Jews right into the sea in a mass genocide. But oddly, they are never criticized by the Neolibs. They offer to “move the Jews to Madagascar” for some extremely insane reason. Like an entire nation would ever give up its homeland. But in all this craziness, the Neolibs are calling for reparations “by other white people” of course. Never themselves. Neolibs support BLM, #metoo, and etc etc etc as long as it doesn’t benefit anyone of those melantonin deficient, and therefore ethnically inferior, Jews. And suddenly it is 1940 again. Fascists calling for the deaths of people they mistakenly call fascists while they still openly or even silently endorse the genocide of the Jews. And never once noticing nor caring that the rest of sane humanity sees them for exactly what they are. 

[AUDub 11,806]

17 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

Wow, are you about to get it. All the cool kids know you can always blame a Jew. Always. The Neolibs in America all have a profound hatred for Jews. It is one of the still perfunctory knee jerk reactions from them. It is near 100% participation event. If only those pesky, Jews full of hatred would just lineup And march into the ovens...I meant the sea. You know there are millions of Muslims that are convinced and pray for the day when they march the Jews right into the sea in a mass genocide. But oddly, they are never criticized by the Neolibs. They offer to “move the Jews to Madagascar” for some extremely insane reason. Like an entire nation would ever give up its homeland. But in all this craziness, the Neolibs are calling for reparations “by other white people” of course. Never themselves. Neolibs support BLM, #metoo, and etc etc etc as long as it doesn’t benefit anyone of those melantonin deficient, and therefore ethnically inferior, Jews. And suddenly it is 1940 again. Fascists calling for the deaths of people they mistakenly call fascists while they still openly or even silently endorse the genocide of the Jews. And never once noticing nor caring that the rest of sane humanity sees them for exactly what they are. 

There's, well, a lot to unpack here. 

[alexava 6,974]

1 hour ago, AUDub said:

There's, well, a lot to unpack here. 

It’s going to take a while. I’m about ten beers in, digesting a low country boil where I disposed of at least a pound of shrimp. I forgot everything I just read......

[aubiefifty 18,194]

i have never gotten the hate for jews other than they were the cause of jesus being crucified. i know the romans were involved but left it up to the jewish pols.etc, to decide his fate? other than that i have no idea. i have never been much of a hater and i have never set an entire race up for hate. i have always blamed an individual but never an entire race. so if i have missed something with the jews let me know.

[Mikey 16,781]

46 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i have never gotten the hate for jews other than they were the cause of jesus being crucified. i know the romans were involved but left it up to the jewish pols.etc, to decide his fate? other than that i have no idea. i have never been much of a hater and i have never set an entire race up for hate. i have always blamed an individual but never an entire race. so if i have missed something with the jews let me know.

My mother's best friend, a Jew, was my godmother who promised to see that I was raised in a christian faith, or at least that's how I understand the godmother thing. So I'm not totally unfamiliar with the Jews. A Jewish girl I knew in high school married a gentile and her family declared her to be dead, held a funeral and so forth. You see, they can be clannish, which makes other peoples suspicious. They also have, over the centuries, proven to be financially successful as a race. Perhaps this brings jealousy?

I really don't know why the Nazi's hated the Jews so much, unless eliminating them caused a bunch or wealth to fall into Nazi hands. I can see why the violent sects of Muslims want to kill Jews, that eliminates a competitor.

As to why some modern blacks and liberals hate Jews, I've got no idea. As a race, Jews have tended to vote for Democrats so liberals should see them as an ally.

[alexava 6,974]

24 minutes ago, Mikey said:

My mother's best friend, a Jew, was my godmother who promised to see that I was raised in a christian faith, or at least that's how I understand the godmother thing. So I'm not totally unfamiliar with the Jews. A Jewish girl I knew in high school married a gentile and her family declared her to be dead, held a funeral and so forth. You see, they can be clannish, which makes other peoples suspicious. They also have, over the centuries, proven to be financially successful as a race. Perhaps this brings jealousy?

I really don't know why the Nazi's hated the Jews so much, unless eliminating them caused a bunch or wealth to fall into Nazi hands. I can see why the violent sects of Muslims want to kill Jews, that eliminates a competitor.

As to why some modern blacks and liberals hate Jews, I've got no idea. As a race, Jews have tended to vote for Democrats so liberals should see them as an ally.

More than centuries actually. I have been called antisemite myself for stating history. And I hate no one. I know very few Jews but like the few I know very well. But throughout history they have built wealth and left other neighboring ethnicities holding the bag, been overthrown and rescued only to repeat the process all over again. I don’t know of any other populace who have been bailed out more. For those reasons they are hated by Some people who can’t reason. I have questioned the unwavering support our country gives Israel. I’m not against Israel. I just have to wonder if they are worth the investment we give in their preservation. 
  I don’t know what the populations are right off hand. I was told years ago there are more Jewish people in NY than everywhere else in the world. 

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

Why is it that Black America is expected to stand up to racism against Jews just because they are promoting an awareness of systemic racism to their own culture? Why do people insist in finding continuous fault in black America’s movement? 

[aubiefifty 18,194]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

More than centuries actually. I have been called antisemite myself for stating history. And I hate no one. I know very few Jews but like the few I know very well. But throughout history they have built wealth and left other neighboring ethnicities holding the bag, been overthrown and rescued only to repeat the process all over again. I don’t know of any other populace who have been bailed out more. For those reasons they are hated by Some people who can’t reason. I have questioned the unwavering support our country gives Israel. I’m not against Israel. I just have to wonder if they are worth the investment we give in their preservation. 
  I don’t know what the populations are right off hand. I was told years ago there are more Jewish people in NY than everywhere else in the world. 

i read somewhere a long time ago that Israel has abortions paid for by the gov and yet they are ok with us shoveling tons of money to help them. i do not understand that. and i have never seen one christian remark on this ever. maybe they do not know? i mean from what i understand part 2 is trump was voted in office to put antiabortion judges on the supreme court.

anyway one of the most gifted guitar players i have ever heard is jewish but he is also a born again christian. he has played with some big names. reba was one. anyway thanx for the answers.

[aubiefifty 18,194]

1 hour ago, GiveEmElle said:

Why is it that Black America is expected to stand up to racism against Jews just because they are promoting an awareness of systemic racism to their own culture? Why do people insist in finding continuous fault in black America’s movement? 

because there is a massive smear campaign against the legit blm's and from what i can see it has been very effective.

[DKW 86 7,892]

7 hours ago, GiveEmElle said:

Why is it that Black America is expected to stand up to racism against Jews just because they are promoting an awareness of systemic racism to their own culture? Why do people insist in finding continuous fault in black America’s movement? 

Who the hell cited BLM? I did not. I was talking SPECIFICALLY about their Clingers-on. Not BLM.

And lets just cut to the chase here. It wouldnt matter if BLM was involved at all. This is a red herring. There are Jew Haters on the Left and always will be. Whether they bother to Cloak it in BDS, or Madagascar, or some feigned insanity where they only look at the plight of Palestinians. They will always find a reason to hate on Jews, no matter what. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE EVEN A HALF-ASSED REASON. THEY WILL RATIONALIZE ONE OUT OF THIN AIR. 

[DKW 86 7,892]

45 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

because there is a massive smear campaign against the legit blm's and from what i can see it has been very effective.

Just dont count me in on that. I was very specific to not include them. 

Hamas and many many others have a Chant about "From the Jordan to the Sea" that refers to the day when there will not a Jew alive in "Palestine."

Problem, where was Palestine when the UN was ceding the Jews the land in 1948?

just Google "Zionism is Racism" and see what the Jews have had to put up with for decades. Their mere existence is....RACIST. 
For them to Breathe Air is Racist. Cant you all see that? To be a Jew, safe in a house is Racist.Even in his own homeland. Every Jew and Everything a Jew does is Racist.

 

[aubiefifty 18,194]

i understand they have been persecuted for years. and they get about but not quite as much hate as i see blacks get.i was raised to judge people on their merits as individuals and not what color their skin is or what their religion is. i know most jews  believe jesus has not come yet or something of that nature. hell i have bigger fish to fry like trump. and speaking of trump i made a nice post being sorry his brother died. that is about as far as i can go. some on facebook were shocked but as someone who has two nieces left of all the family i once had i cannot find any joy laughing at his sorrow regardless of how much crap he has done to this country. i still have to wonder if it would have gotten trumps attention if his brother had died of covid.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

Who the hell cited BLM? I did not. I was talking SPECIFICALLY about their Clingers-on. Not BLM.

And lets just cut to the chase here. It wouldnt matter if BLM was involves atall. This is a red herring. There are Jew Haters on the Left and always will be. Whether they bother to Cloak it in BDS, or Madagascar, or some feigned insanity where they only look at the plight of Palestinians. They will always find a reason to hate on Jews, no matter what. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE EVEN A HALF-ASSED REASON. THEY WILL RATIONALIZE ONE OUT OF THIN AIR. 

I didn’t mention BLM. You wanna quote me and respond then respond to what I said, not what you heard. 
And don’t come at me about Jews. Wasn’t too long ago Trump was calling tiki torch bearing Nazi flag waving white men in khakis “very fine people.” Get the damn Nazi out of the White House first.

[aubiefifty 18,194]

he said it after one of the nazi's shot up a black church as well. but now his cult base on here is already calling harris a ho and camel something or other. from what i gather they believe she is ugly because she is a dem. at least when i get on trump it is about something he has done tho i have to admit his raccoon eyes and horrible comb over are pretty nasty. i still cannot believe they voted for a damn ped. it makes me sick................

[Auburnfan91 1,408]

3 hours ago, GiveEmElle said:

Why is it that Black America is expected to stand up to racism against Jews just because they are promoting an awareness of systemic racism to their own culture? Why do people insist in finding continuous fault in black America’s movement? 

That's not what the article was stating. The article states that African American celebrities and public figures like Nick Cannon, Rodney Muhammed, who is the head of the Philadelphia NAACP, and others that were mentioned have either pushed or defended the use anti-Semitic tropes. You can promote the awareness of racism in society without using anti-Semitic tropes. It's the lack of condemning those incidents that is highlighting a problem for the anti-racism movement. How can a group proclaiming to fight racism not condemn bigotry against Jews when it's coming from their side? Or is it only okay to condemn bigotry against Jews when it's the alt-right that's spewing it?

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

2 hours ago, Auburnfan91 said:

That's not what the article was stating. The article states that African American celebrities and public figures like Nick Cannon, Rodney Muhammed, who is the head of the Philadelphia NAACP, and others that were mentioned have either pushed or defended the use anti-Semitic tropes. You can promote the awareness of racism in society without using anti-Semitic tropes. It's the lack of condemning those incidents that is highlighting a problem for the anti-racism movement. How can a group proclaiming to fight racism not condemn bigotry against Jews when it's coming from their side? Or is it only okay to condemn bigotry against Jews when it's the alt-right that's spewing it?

So two black people said something so that means the entire black race fails to stand up against racism? This is an opinion piece from a woman in Tel Aviv, for crying out loud. 

[DKW 86 7,892]

4 hours ago, GiveEmElle said:

I didn’t mention BLM. You wanna quote me and respond then respond to what I said, not what you heard. 
And don’t come at me about Jews. Wasn’t too long ago Trump was calling tiki torch bearing Nazi flag waving white men in khakis “very fine people.” Get the damn Nazi out of the White House first.

Are you under the delusion that trump isnt gone already?

[DKW 86 7,892]

2 hours ago, Auburnfan91 said:

That's not what the article was stating. The article states that African American celebrities and public figures like Nick Cannon, Rodney Muhammed, who is the head of the Philadelphia NAACP, and others that were mentioned have either pushed or defended the use anti-Semitic tropes. You can promote the awareness of racism in society without using anti-Semitic tropes. It's the lack of condemning those incidents that is highlighting a problem for the anti-racism movement. How can a group proclaiming to fight racism not condemn bigotry against Jews when it's coming from their side? Or is it only okay to condemn bigotry against Jews when it's the alt-right that's spewing it?

Brother, take a rest. I am not even sure Elle read the article.

[wdefromtx 3,561]

5 hours ago, Auburnfan91 said:

That's not what the article was stating. The article states that African American celebrities and public figures like Nick Cannon, Rodney Muhammed, who is the head of the Philadelphia NAACP, and others that were mentioned have either pushed or defended the use anti-Semitic tropes. You can promote the awareness of racism in society without using anti-Semitic tropes. It's the lack of condemning those incidents that is highlighting a problem for the anti-racism movement. How can a group proclaiming to fight racism not condemn bigotry against Jews when it's coming from their side? Or is it only okay to condemn bigotry against Jews when it's the alt-right that's spewing it?

About sums it with some folk’s thinking on here. 

[aubiefifty 18,194]

7 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

Just dont count me in on that. I was very specific to not include them. 

Hamas and many many others have a Chant about "From the Jordan to the Sea" that refers to the day when there will not a Jew alive in "Palestine."

Problem, where was Palestine when the UN was ceding the Jews the land in 1948?

just Google "Zionism is Racism" and see what the Jews have had to put up with for decades. Their mere existence is....RACIST. 
For them to Breathe Air is Racist. Cant you all see that? To be a Jew, safe in a house is Racist.Even in his own homeland. Every Jew and Everything a Jew does is Racist.

 

i was not thinking of not aiming the smear campaign at you dk. i got no problems telling anyone what i think. i will even say i am sorry if it looked that way. come do a bong hit wid me brother............lol

[aubiefifty 18,194]

2 minutes ago, wdefromtx said:

About sums it with some folk’s thinking on here. 

also i do not like racism period and i could care less who is spouting it. i thought i made that clear. people should be judged as individuals. sorry i quoted you wd i mean to quote dk..........

[wdefromtx 3,561]

7 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

also i do not like racism period and i could care less who is spouting it. i thought i made that clear. people should be judged as individuals. sorry i quoted you wd i mean to quote dk..........

I know what you mean, so no worries. This wasn’t in reference to you at all. I know from our conversations you denounce racism no matter where it comes from. 

[AUFAN78 4,146]

23 hours ago, alexava said:

It’s going to take a while. I’m about ten beers in, digesting a low country boil where I disposed of at least a pound of shrimp. I forgot everything I just read......

Ten! Jeez. Congrats? 

[DKW 86 7,892]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

i was not thinking of not aiming the smear campaign at you dk. i got no problems telling anyone what i think. i will even say i am sorry if it looked that way. come do a bong hit wid me brother............lol