13% of the population in the USA is black
BUT THEY COMMIT 85% of all violent interracial crimes, 80% of all shootings, 79% of all robberies, 59% of all murders, 52% of all violent juvenile crimes, 45% of all drug offenses..
49% of all murder victims are black. 42% of all cop killers are black.
99% of all major riots involving property damage, looting and civil disobedience are committed by blacks as opposed to ANY OTHER minority in America.
BUT THEY COMMIT 85% of all violent interracial crimes, 80% of all shootings, 79% of all robberies, 59% of all murders, 52% of all violent juvenile crimes, 45% of all drug offenses..
49% of all murder victims are black. 42% of all cop killers are black.
99% of all major riots involving property damage, looting and civil disobedience are committed by blacks as opposed to ANY OTHER minority in America.
93% of all black murder victims are murdered by another black.
33% of all crimes in America are committed by 3% of the population; blacks between the ages of 16 and 36
8% of America’s population are black men, yet they account for 40% of America’s total prison population.
33% of all crimes in America are committed by 3% of the population; blacks between the ages of 16 and 36
8% of America’s population are black men, yet they account for 40% of America’s total prison population.
40% of blacks are on welfare
Only 59% blacks graduate high school (Detroit, only 20%)
Over 60% of black households have no fathers present
72% of black mothers are unwed!
Blacks account for 38% of abortions (only 13% of population and contraceptives are FREE)
(STATISTICS FROM Dept. of
Justice, Dept. of Commerce, FBI and USA Census (ALL and sect.5 Law EnforcementOver 60% of black households have no fathers present
72% of black mothers are unwed!
Blacks account for 38% of abortions (only 13% of population and contraceptives are FREE)
At Least 4 Synagogues Were Vandalized By BLM/Antifa
At Least 4 Synagogues Were Vandalized By BLM/Antifa
The riots might also be the single biggest wave of anti-Semitic hate crimes in 24 hours since the Crown Heights Pogrom in the nineties.
As I noted previously, Congregation Beth El on Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles had been vandalized with graffiti. Elder of Ziyon's Twitter feed shows that in addition, Beit Medrash Kehilat Yaakov, also known as Rabbi Bess' shul, and Rabbi Ganzweig's Shul in Los Angeles were spray painted. Also Beth Ahabah, a Reform Temple in Richmond Virginia, had its windows shattered by the rioting thugs.
Both Black Lives Matter and Antifa have clear anti-Semitic ideologies. The vandalism of multiple synagogues ought to be part of the discussion about their climate of violence and hate.
from hate
While the US (indeed most of the world, it seems)
is in the twilight zone of a suspended form of life in lockdown, concentrating
on all news Wuhan China Covid-19, other news is happening, other people are,
sadly, dying from other causes besides the mysterious virus.
Including murder. A hate crime murder.
One of the five victims of a vicious machete stabbing attack by a black man
against Jews celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hannukah in their home died Sunday evening. The
Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council tweeted:
The stabbing attack took
place Saturday night Dec 28, 2019 during a Hanukkah celebration in the Forshay
area of Monsey, NY at the home of Rabbi Chaim Leibish Rottenberg. The incident
left five people wounded. The funeral of Mr. Neumann OBM will be Monday.
We are sad to inform you that Yosef Neumann who was stabbed during the
Hanukah attack in Monsey late Dec 2019, passed away this evening.
Neumann, whose parents miraculously survived the
devastating Holocaust that slaughtered over 90% of European Jewry during World
War ll, was a young child who emigrated with them and his siblings to America
after they escaped Hungary during the 1956
revolution. Years later, married and the father of seven, he
settled in Monsey, an outer suburb of New York City, that along with
surrounding suburbs, is home to thousands of
religious Jews who maintain the customs, practices, dress and
language of their immediate ancestors.
In accordance with Jewish law Neumann was buried
on Monday, soon after his passing. Not in accordance with Jewish law but
in accordance with emergency decrees necessitated by the Wuhan, China
Covid-19 crisis to save lives which is in accordance with Jewish law, the
funeral and post funeral rituals were small without the presence of many
family, friends and colleagues.
New York is heartbroken by the death of Josef Neumann,
who was brutally attacked during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey three months
ago.
This hate-motivated attack shook us to our core.
Any attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/us/hanukkah-stabbing-victim-dies/index.html …
This hate-motivated attack shook us to our core.
Any attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/us/hanukkah-stabbing-victim-dies/index.html …
Stabbing victim dies 3 months after attack at Hanukkah celebration in
New York
After the hate-fueled attack in Monsey, I vowed to enact
a law that calls this violence & hate what it is—domestic terrorism—and
punishes perpetrators accordingly.
I will rename this bill in honor of Josef & I call on the Legislature to pass it.
We owe it to him to get it done.
I will rename this bill in honor of Josef & I call on the Legislature to pass it.
We owe it to him to get it done.
The machete swinging murderer, Grafton
Thomas, 37, who already faces state and federal charges related to
the crime, has pleaded not guilty to both sets of charges.
May Neumann's memory be for a blessing; may his
soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life
Horror New Year
Hanukkah Five stabbing
victim in grave condition as authorities block information on suspect.
January 2, 2020
Lloyd Billingsley
“Hanukkah stabbing victim’s
‘dire’ condition revealed,” headlined the January 1, 2020 Fox News story by
Travis Fedschun. The victim was Josef Neumann and according to a statement from
his family, “the 70-year-old was stabbed multiple times during the attack, sustaining injuries that included three cuts to the head, one
cut to the neck, a shattered right arm, and a knife that penetrated his skull
directly into the brain.”
Doctors are not optimistic
about Neumann’s chances to regain consciousness, and “if our father does
miraculously recover partially, doctors expect that he will have permanent
damage to the brain; leaving him partially paralyzed and speech impaired for
the rest of his life.”
A photo released Wednesday by
the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council in Hudson Valley showed the
unconscious Neuman with his bloodied and bruised head heavily sutured. The
70-year old was one of five victims of an attack in Monsey, New York, last
Saturday at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg.
Shortly before 10 p.m., as the
rabbi was lighting the candle on the seventh night of Hanukkah, a man with face
partially covered burst into the home and began stabbing people with a machete.
The attack claimed five victims, including the rabbi’s son. The suspect was
covered in blood when police arrested him in New York City on December 22.
The suspect was identified as
Grafton Thomas, 37, an African American from Greenwood Lake, New York. News
reports said the suspect’s arrest record had been sealed and the mystery about
possible motive continued into 2020.
“Judge mum on why suspect was
set free last year,” read the second half of the Fox News headline. As Fedschun
revealed, Thomas had “multiple run-ins
with law enforcement” including an arrest for “assaulting a police horse.” The judge assigned to the case refused comment, calling it a
“sealed case.”
After the attack, New York’s
Democrat attorney general Letitia James, proclaimed “zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific
situation.”
At this writing, James has
offered no explanation why the prior case was sealed and district attorneys
have declined comment.
After the Hanukkah stabbings,
New York governor Andrew Cuomo cited recent attacks, “motivated by hate. They
are doing mass attacks. These are terrorists in our country perpetrating terrorism on other Americans, and that’s how we should treat it and
that's how I want the laws in this state to treat it.” At this writing, the
governor has made no public demand that the suspect’s previous cases be
unsealed.
In similar style, New York
authorities have announced no plans to prosecute the case as terrorism. The
Southern District of New York is charging Thomas with five counts of
obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill
and use of a dangerous weapon, and resulting in bodily injury. NBC News
describes the counts as “federal hate crimes charges.”
As Fedschun’s story noted, in
journals recovered from his home Thomas questioned, “why ppl mourned for
anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide,” along with a page with drawings
of a Star of David and a swastika. Thomas’ phone revealed repeated
internet searches for “Why did Hitler hate the Jews” as well as “German Jewish
Temples near me” and “Prominent companies founded by Jews in America.”
Thomas’ court-appointed
attorney Susanne Brody claimed the suspect has struggled with bipolar disorder
and schizophrenia. Attorney Michael Sussman, retained by the family, told
reporters Thomas had been hearing voices and may have stopped taking
psychiatric medications. According to Sussman, nothing found in Thomas’ home
pointed to “an anti-Semitic motive.”
According to a statement from
Thomas’ family, the suspect has no history of violent acts, no history of
anti-Semitism and is not a member of any hate groups. The family did cite a
long history of mental illness but an insanity defense could prove difficult.
Such a defense shifts the
burden of proof to the accused, who must prove beyond reasonable doubt that he
did not know the difference between right and wrong at the time of the
crime. The suspect has already
exhibited evidence of planning the attack, and according to victims he covered
his face with a scarf. His flight
from the scene also betrays knowledge of criminal intent.
In 2002, Grafton Thomas joined
the U.S. Marine Corps but left the service within a month. Marine Captain
Karoline Foote told reporters the Corps was required to keep the details private. President
Trump commander in chief of U.S. Armed Forces, might give Capt. Foote a
call.
President Trump condemned the “horrific” attack at
the rabbi’s home and tweeted: “We must all come together to fight, confront,
and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism. Melania and I wish the victims
a quick and full recovery.” At this writing, recovery looks unlikely for Josef
Neumann.
Meanwhile, after the attack,
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told Fox News, “An
atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years.
A lot of it is emanating from Washington and it’s having an effect on all of
us.” Also after the attack, California Democrat Eric Swalwell tweeted “Anti-Semitism
is on the rise in America. And it’s being stoked by @realDonaldTrump who won’t condemn it.”
The Alarming
Escalation of African American Attacks Against Jews
Are full-fledged riots and
mass massacres next?
January 3, 2020
Joseph Klein
Anti-Semitic attacks have
reached epidemic proportions in the New York metropolitan area. A shooting
early last December at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City left several people
dead, including two Hasidic Jews. A policeman was also killed by the same
shooters nearby. The killers aimed to kill as many Jews as possible before they
were struck down. Last Saturday night, five Jewish people were stabbed by a
Jew-hater wielding a machete at a Hasidic rabbi’s house in the suburb of
Monsey, New York. One of the victims suffered serious head injuries, which has
left him in a coma and may result in permanent damage to his brain. Orthodox
Jews residing in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, Crown Heights and
Williamsburg are living in constant fear, triggered by a slew of anti-Semitic
incidents that were a near daily occurrence during December and have continued
into 2020.
These were not violent crimes
committed by white nationalists. While white supremacists continue to pose a
major threat to the lives and well-being of Jews and other minority groups
nationwide, the alarming series of recent anti-Semitic attacks in the New York
metropolitan area were conducted primarily by African Americans.
Anti-Semitic propensities among
some African Americans have been simmering for years, as documented by a survey conducted back in 2013 by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a second survey conducted by the ADL in 2016. The 2016 survey noted that over the past four years,
“Anti-Semitic views among the African American population have remained steady
and are higher than the general population.” As compared to the white
population, anti-Semitic propensities among African Americans as measured in
2016 were more than double that of whites - 23% versus 10% respectively. This
survey also found that Hispanic Americans born outside of the U.S. have even
higher anti-Semitic propensities (31%) than African Americans. The anti-Semitic
propensities of U.S. born Hispanics were measured at 19%, higher than whites
but lower than African Americans.
It is the simmering
anti-Semitism within the African American population that is now spilling over
into rampant violence against Jews. The attacks on Orthodox Jews in New York City, particularly in
Brooklyn, have not stopped with either the end of Hanukkah or the close of
2019. On New Year’s Day, two women attacked a Hasidic man in South
Williamsburg, yelling “I will kill you Jews.” As the victim tried to use his
cellphone to take a photo of his attackers, one of them snatched the phone out
of his hand. After pushing their victim to the ground, one of the women broke
the phone and threw it in his face.
Why do they keep doing this to
us?” asked one Hasidic woman after the New Year’s Day incident that occurred
close to her home. “We mean them no harm, yet they’re always cursing at us and
hitting us.”
Part of the answer is rooted in
a hate-filled black supremacist ideology that has influenced some African
Americans willing to move from militant rhetoric to violence.
The Jersey City murderers were
Black Hebrew Israelites, a sect which includes black supremacists who believe
that they are God's true chosen people as the real descendants of the Hebrews
of the Bible. They dismiss whites who call themselves Jews as imposters.
The accused Monsey machete
slasher reportedly kept journals that were filled with anti-Semitic rants
reflective of this ideology and that referred specifically to “Hebrew
Israelites” in one passage.
Even the leftwing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) listed 144
Black Hebrew Israelite groups as “hate groups because
of their anti-white and antisemitic beliefs.” SPLC noted that these Black Israelite
groups “believe that, as members of the 12 Tribes of Israel – consisting only
of African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans – they are God’s ‘chosen
people.’” They regard Caucasians and members of the LGBTQ community as
‘devils.’
“Extreme Black Hebrew
Israelites believe that individuals outside the movement are deserving of
slavery or death,” SPLC added. Remember that this assessment is coming from the
same organization that finds white supremacists and Islamophobes lurking
everywhere.
But extremist ideology is not
the entire answer for the escalating violence by African Americans against
Jews. Some African American leaders have stoked anti-Semitic accusations that
Jews possess too much economic and political power in the United States, which
Jews are supposedly exploiting against African Americans who live in the same
neighborhoods. African Americans believing such false accusations turn their
anger into self-justifications for violence. Hasidic Jews wearing religious
garb living in these neighborhoods stand out as the most vulnerable targets.
Following the murder of Jews in
Jersey City, a black school board member named Joan Terrell-Paige posted on Facebook a diatribe against Jews who have moved to the city. She pooh-poohed the
concerns expressed by some political and religious leaders over the
anti-Semitic killings.
“Where was all this faith
and hope when Black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I
WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the jewish community,” Terrell-Paige wrote.
“Are we brave enough to stop the assault on the Black communities of America?”
she added, displaying shocking indifference to the slaughter of innocent Jews as
well as of a policeman.
Terrell-Paige said that she did
not regret her post. While some New Jersey government leaders called for her
resignation, a House candidate John Flora viewed her post as a teaching moment.
“To me her remarks were an invitation for the entire city to discuss honestly
what led up to such a horrific event," Flora said Tuesday. "There
is a lingering resentment in certain transitioning neighborhoods that I’m not
sure repeated sit-downs with the same community leaders will ever resolve.” He
announced a vigil in support of Terrell-Paige on Thursday.
The Hudson County Democratic
Black Caucus said that while it did not agree with “the delivery of the
statement made by Ms. Terrell-Paige we believe that her statement has
heightened awareness around issues that must be addressed.”
Rabbi Avi Shafran responded to
such outrageous excuse-making in an op-ed article entitled “Not-So-Good
People.” He wrote:
“No, dear Caucus, the only
issue that must be addressed is black anti-Semitism.
That phrase, of course, isn’t
intended to implicate the larger African-American community, any more than the
phrase ‘white anti-Semitism’ implicates all Caucasians.
It simply acknowledges the sad
reality that Jew-hatred exists not only in the fever dreams of racists who hate
blacks but also in the delusions of some of those they hate.”
Progressives leading the
Democratic Party leftward, along with their friends in the mainstream media,
refuse to acknowledge this reality. They shrink from speaking out forcefully
against the violence of black racists, while using every opportunity they can
to denounce white supremacists. Heaven forbid that they upset the narrative of
“white privilege” and white “oppression” of minorities, which casts Jews as
part of the oppressor class and people of color as always the victims.
Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib even blamed “white supremacy” for the Jersey City murders by the black supremacist Hebrew
Israelites. “This is heartbreaking. White supremacy kills,” she wrote in a
tweet. Tlaib has since deleted this absurd tweet, but it reflects her clear
anti-Semitic bias.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio reverted to form last
Sunday when he blamed the recent spike in anti-Semitic attacks in New York on
an "atmosphere of hate" that has been “emanating from Washington.” He
mentioned only President Trump by name. While placing some of the blame on
divisiveness in Congress, he did not call out the leading anti-Semites in
Congress, Representatives Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The epidemic of anti-Semitic
attacks in the New York metropolitan area are emanating from within the local
African American communities themselves. The attacks are rationalized or
ignored by leftists who believe that only “privileged” whites commit hate
crimes.
Misguided policies that coddle
criminals are making it easier for the violence against Jews to spread, because
word gets around that the perpetrators face no serious consequences. Indeed,
the irresponsible no-bail catch and release policy in New York, which
technically went into effect on January 1st, has already put
an anti-Semitic offender back on the street to continue her rampage. The
get-out-of jail card will likely mean the quick release of most of the other
offenders as well. What good are the increased police patrols in Jewish
neighborhoods promised by Mayor de Blasio and New York State Governor Andrew
Cuomo if the attacks against Jews are treated like petty crimes?
Will there be a repeat of
the anti-Jewish riot in Crown Heights that occurred in 1991? Are massacres of Jews resulting in
many deaths and injuries inevitable if nothing is done to stem the current
level of violence? It’s a distinct possibility. The seeds of African American
anti-Semitism have already been sown. The fertilizer contributing to their
potential fruition into full-fledged riots or mass massacres consists of a
radicalized left obsessed with “white privilege,” lax criminal laws, and
government leaders unwilling to directly confront the scourge of African
American anti-Semitism. Hopefully, there is still time to turn the tide.
Black Anti-Semitism and Leftist Paternalism
Infantalizing Blacks hurts Jews and Blacks.
January 7, 2020
Danusha V. Goska
Husband: "Ya fired the cleaning woman!"
Wife: "She was stealing!"
Husband: "But she's colored!"
Wife: "So?"
Husband: "So the colored have enough trouble!"
Wife: "She was going through my pocketbook!"
Husband: "They're persecuted enough!"
Wife: "Who's persecuting? She stole!"
Husband: "All right! So? We can afford it!"
Wife: "How can we afford it? On your pay? What if she steals
more?"
Husband: "She's a colored woman from Harlem! She has no
money! She's got a right to steal from us! After all, who is she gonna steal
from, if not us?"
Wife: "I married a fool!"
Woody Allen depicted his character, Alvy Singer's, parents
having this argument in his
1977, Academy-Award-winning film Annie
Hall. The argument echoes in January, 2020, in the wake of
numerous, headline-grabbing attacks by African Americans on Jews in the New York
City area.
On December 10, 2019, two shooters, influenced by the Black Hebrew
Israelite ideology, shot to death four people in Jersey City, NJ. Their target
was a Kosher supermarket. On December 28, 2019, a lone man, also influenced by
Black Hebrew Israelite ideology, barged into a rabbi's home in Monsey, New
York, during a Hanukah celebration. The assailant stabbed five people before
guests threw furniture at him and he fled.
These violent attacks received relatively greater attention than
other recent assaults, although Seth J. Frantzman pointed out in the Jerusalem Post that
the Jersey City shooting did not receive the attention that other comparable
shootings receive. Frantzman wrote,
"The murder of three people at a kosher supermarket in Jersey
City was mostly ignored in the United States. No rallies or marches against the
antisemitism that led to it. No major political upheavals or even much
recognition. The usual anger over gun violence after mass shootings was nowhere
to be found … America as a whole can’t mourn Orthodox Jews and it can’t
confront perpetrators when the perpetrators come from a minority community.
This is inconvenient antisemitism and it is a kind of antisemitism privilege.
Despite widespread anti-racism programs in the US, there are still those in
America for whom being antisemitic is a birthright and not something to be
ashamed of."
I live fourteen miles from Jersey City and I am a voracious
consumer of news media. Frantzman is correct. It was a long time before
concerned residents were informed of what exactly transpired, who the
assailants were, and what their motive was. When this information finally was
released, it was rapidly buried. If Jewish assailants, armed with an arsenal
including a pipe bomb, had attacked a black-owned business and its customers in
broad daylight, no doubt at least a week of news stories would have followed.
The Monsey and Jersey City attacks are part of a trend. An
incident on December 24, 2019 is fairly typical. A Jewish man is walking on the
sidewalk of Albany Avenue and Lincoln Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Seven
young black males approach him and throw something at his head. The Jewish man
is knocked off center but continues walking, rapidly, away from the youths.
Three of the youths, one armed with a long object, chase after him. Two punch
him. This is all recorded on video. At first, the victim did not
report this attack to anyone. Such attacks had become part of life for Jews in
the New York metro area. Further, new "reforms" would make the
victim's name known to his attackers. They could come at him again, using means
other than street assault. Seth J. Frantzman calls the frequency of these
attacks "a slow-moving pogrom."
One might think that after the Monsey and Jersey City atrocities,
news accounts, editorial pages, Twitter and other social media would be flooded
with demands that African Americans confront the antisemitism percolating in
their communities, that schools would be developing curricula to educate those
in thrall to irrational hatred and violence, and that elected officials would
be fearless in naming and shaming the ideologies and resentments that incite
violence and hate.
Those reasonable expectations would be thwarted in any perusal of
mainstream and social media in early January, 2020. Rather one finds an almost
science-fiction phenomenon at work. Jews condemning police protection. Jews
insisting that blacks not be associated with antisemitism. And, of course, a
rally in support of an antisemitic schoolboard member.
In the wake of the kosher market shooting, Jersey City schoolboard
member Joan Terrell-Paige posted a protest against Jews on Facebook. Terrell-Paige referred to "jews" – lower case – as
"brutes" who "wave bags of money" to get their way.
Terrell-Paige implied that the shooters were martyrs, trying to protect the
black community from evil Jews. "Drugs and guns are planted in the black
community" she alleged, perhaps by Jews. Jews are guilty of an
"assault on Black communities of America. My people deserve respect and to
live in peace."
New Jersey Governor Murphy asked that Terrell-Paige resign. As of
this writing, she is still a member of the Jersey City schoolboard.
What's more, Patch.com reported on December 30 that a candlelight vigil was planned to
support Terrell-Paige. Al Sharpton's National Action Network defended Terrell-Paige. Gov. Murphy and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop "need to shut
their mouths" said the National Action Network's Carolyn Oliver Fair.
Terrell-Paige "said nothing wrong. Everything she said is the truth. So
where is this anti-Semitism coming in? I am not getting it," said Oliver
Fair, who also alleged that the Jersey City shooters were Jewish. The shooters
were not Jewish; rather, they were influenced by the Black Hebrew
Israelites, a hate group that insists that
Jews are "imposters" and that the real Jews of the Bible were black.
What is more astounding is the number of Jewish spokespersons who
took a similar approach. On December 30, 2019, the Labour-Leftist aligned
British daily The
Guardian managed to round up enough tweets to publish an
article entitled, "Jewish Groups Push Back Against Police Surge in Wake Of
Antisemitic Attacks. Liberal Groups Say the New Policing Measures Put Forward
by Mayor De Blasio Will Divide Communities."
All the words in that headline are spelled correctly. The grammar works. But
that's where sanity ends. In the wake of deadly attacks, one inside a private
home during a holiday celebration, The
Guardian wants Jews to forgo police protection in the name of
leftist identity politics.
Where have we encountered this selection of one group's suffering
as earning priority over another group's suffering? Oh, yes. After women were
raped, sometimes gang-raped, by Muslim migrants in Europe, they were often told
to keep quiet, because reports of these rapes would interfere with migration
policy. (See here, here, here, here, and here).
It's weird enough that non-Jews would tell Jews to forgo police
protection and endure beatings, even death, in the name of political
correctness. But Jews are doing it, too.
On December 29, 2019, the Jewish Voice for Peace blamed "rising white nationalist violence" for attacks on
"Jews, Muslims, Black people, and all people of color." Police
protection for Jews was unwanted. Jews should not "rely on the very forces
detaining and locking up and killing our friends, family, &
neighbors."
David Klion, editor at Jewish
Currents and published in The Nation, The New York Times, and The Guardian, tweeted on December 29 that
"I never want out of my mind" that "We should not give one inch
to right-wing forces within and outside of our community exploiting these
attacks to legitimize racism."
The "racism" at work in these attacks is expressed by
black people who despise Jews. And Klion wants never to have "out of his
mind" (no pun intended) that right-wing racism is the problem? Well, yes.
Because, as Klion tweeted on December 27,
"Flooding POC neighborhoods with cops is going to carry real costs,
potentially even fatal ones, for tens of thousands of people who have no
complicity in these attacks. I'm also deeply uncomfortable with the optics of
cops functioning as security for Jews against POC."
Jews shot; Jews stabbed; Klion is worried about "optics"
of a police presence. In reply to Klion's tweet, Twitter user
"TalkToTheHand" posted a photo of National Guard troops accompanying black children to school in the American South
during the Civil Rights Movement. Thank you, TalkToTheHand.
Ariel Gold asked, "If the
National Guard are deployed and more police are on the streets to keep Jews
safe, what will that mean for Black communities? Is the trade off worth it? Is
this the answer? Is this lasting safety for all?" Think about the
"tradeoff" Gold mentions. She's talking about keeping Jews safe from
street assaults. What is the other object in this trade? "more police … in
Black communities." To Gold, that is a bad thing. More police. Less crime.
Bad. Think about that.
Sophie Ellman-Golan tweeted, "This sends a
pretty stark message to non-Jewish POC living in these neighborhoods that their
safety matters less than the safety of their Jewish neighbors. That's really
really bad for literally everyone except our common enemies, who benefit when
we're divided."
The Forward insisted
that "Anti-Semitism Isn't Blacks vs. Jews. Saying So Hurts Us All."
The article insisted that no relation be drawn between any aspect of African
American culture, no matter how fringe, and attacks on Jews. Apparently the
attackers have all been lone wolves with no connection to any aspect of black
culture.
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice tweeted that "Our response to antisemitic violence must focus on
building solidarity with other groups targeted by white supremacy, not
increased policing."
What makes the above-cited material all the more surreal is how
much it differs from rhetoric that accompanies accusations of antisemitism when
the accused are more clearly identified as Christians, and, in the case of my
own research, identified specifically as Polish Catholics. My book Bieganski details
rhetoric about Poles and other Eastern European Christians in relation to
accusations of antisemitism. As I demonstrate in the book, antisemitic crimes
committed by Poles are spoken of as inseparable from Polish identity. This
approach can be summed up as, "You did the bad thing you did because you
are Polish. Polish people do bad things." When it comes to blacks, the
analysis becomes, "You did the bad thing you did because you are a victim
of oppression. The people who are oppressing you are responsible for the bad
thing you did."
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski was captured by the German Nazis and
imprisoned in Auschwitz. He made it out – and immediately co-founded, in
Nazi-occupied Poland, Zegota,
the only organization in Nazi-occupied Europe whose sole purpose was to rescue
Jews. After the war, he protested against antisemitic atrocities committed by
his fellow Poles, as co-founder of the All-Poland Anti-Racist league. For this,
he was imprisoned by the Soviets.
And yet, the very Polish, devoutly Catholic Bartoszewski faced
verbal abuse in both Germany and Israel. Why? His ethnic identity. Polish
identity has been conflated with antisemitism for too many people. If you are a
Pole, you are an anti-Semite.
That rhetoric is used to conflate Polish identity with
antisemitism and to shield African American identity from any association with
antisemitism may be of little interest to anyone but Poles. But this dichotomy
is in fact pertinent to African Americans.
It's undeniable that antisemitism has played a significant role in
Polish culture and that Poland was site of antisemitic atrocities carried about
by Poles. Poles are not protected by political correctness. Why? Political
correctness is a concern of the left and Poles are not likely recruits in
bringing on world revolution. Poles famously fought the Soviets, significantly
in 1920, in the Polish-Soviet War that Poles, miraculously, won. Poles fought
the Soviets again after Soviets, along with their allies, the Nazis, invaded
Poland in 1939, and then again in 1945, with resistance lasting till the end of
communism in 1989. Poles are notoriously Catholic, and Catholics are not likely
fodder for world communist revolution. Leftists have no reason to use rhetoric
to protect Poles. Rather, leftists are all too happy to insist, inaccurately, that hate is a Christian
thing, and that Catholicism is responsible for antisemitism.
The ease with which Poles are identified with antisemitism, and
the difficulty of naming African Americans as anti-Semites, is reflected in
Deborah Lipstadt's December 29, 2019 piece in The
Atlantic Monthly. Lipstadt is the professor of Holocaust history of Emory
University. Her essay appeared after the Hanukah stabbing, after the Jersey
City shooting. She had plenty of reason to address African American
antisemitism. She did not. She chickened out. In fact she never uses the words
"black" or "African American."
Whom does Lipstadt accuse? The Poles. And the Slovaks. Eastern
European, Christian populations. Her bashing is not warranted. Szczecin, a city
in Poland, wanted an explanatory note added to a commemorative plaque,
clarifying that the victim the plaque commemorated was murdered by German
Nazis. That's a reasonable and necessary request, given how Holocaust history
is distorted. Slovaks? Thugs desecrated a Jewish cemetery. A very bad thing,
but not representational of Slovaks, and not pertinent to Monsey.
The simple truth is, neither Lipstadt nor The Atlantic Monthly will
catch one bit of flak for bashing Poles and Slovaks, who don't matter to Atlantic Monthly readers
or Emory University or America's elite. Go after easy targets. With them, be as
racist and as essentializing as you want. Poles do bad things because they are
Poles. African Americans do bad things because they are oppressed, but that's
potentially controversial, so we won't even mention it in this article.
Their lack of politically correct protection has, ultimately, been
to Poles' advantage in some ways, though Poles may find that hard to perceive.
Poles have been accused before the world of being essential, unchanging and
unchangeable anti-Semites. Those accusations have prompted mass examination of
conscience in Poland. Those outside of Poland are probably largely unaware of these
national mea culpas, confessionals, and resolutions to reform, but they are
very real. Nobel-prize winner Czeslaw Milosz produced two of the earliest significant works of art addressing the Holocaust, "Campo de Fiori," and
"A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto." Pope John Paul II became the
first pope to enter a Jewish house of worship "since St Peter," and
he was the first pope to visit Auschwitz, where he made it a point to pray at
the monument to Jewish victims, defying communist propaganda that downplayed
the Jewish identity of most victims. John Paul insisted on the continued
validity of God's covenant with the Jews.
I could go on, naming filmmakers, authors, theologians, and
average citizens who have taken it upon themselves to address and to work to
eliminate Polish and all forms of antisemitism. I pray that in my own small
way, I continue this mission.
As quoted above, Seth J. Frantzman wrote that "There are
still those in America for whom being antisemitic is a birthright and not
something to be ashamed of." The key word here is "shame." Shame
drives some Poles to address and defeat antisemitism. Shame, combined with
pride in Poland's multicultural heritage, its tradition of "For your
freedom and ours."
The publications, organizations, and social media users insisting
on not addressing those aspects of African American culture that allow
antisemitism to metastasize are not doing African Americans any favors at all.
Shame is necessary to human community. Years ago I was on a bus in my majority
minority community. Garbage on the street is a major problem here. People throw
their garbage on the street, in the river, on playgrounds, without a second
thought. A young man got off the bus and was about to throw garbage on the
street. I glared at him. For a second he caught my baneful glare. He actually
stopped, and carried his garbage to a garbage can. I shamed him. His behavior
changed.
No, not all African Americans are anti-Semites. Only a minority
are. No, no decent person wants to return to the bad old days of vicious
stereotyping. But the violent attacks are going to continue until someone has
the courage to stand up, root out, and analyze the ideologies that give a free
pass to the black antisemitism that does exist. We can't do that as long as we
are virtue signaling. Servicing one's own reputation as a good, paternalistic
liberal infantilizes and betrays black people.
Black Anti-Semitism: The New
Blood Libel
Why the Left blames the
attacks on White Supremacy.
January 17, 2020
Danusha V. Goska
On Sunday, January 5, 2020, I
was one of an estimated 25,000 protesters
participating in the Solidarity March against antisemitism. Chilled and tightly
packed marchers began in Manhattan's Foley Square, stepped, painfully slowly,
over the Brooklyn Bridge, and congregated in Cadman Plaza.
In Cadman Plaza, a protester
held up a handmade sign reading "RACIST WHITE HOUSE." Another man
persistently walked in front of that man, carrying a mass-produced
"Solidarity. No Hate No Fear" sign. The first man shifted position,
but the second man would not be deterred. He clearly did not want Trump-blaming
to triumph. The two protesters' eventual shouting match typifies a national
debate. How to understand recent attacks by blacks against Jews? Is it all
Trump's fault, or the fault of white supremacists? Or is there such a thing as
black antisemitism?
That sign was just one of many attempts to
attribute recent attacks on Jews by blacks in the New York City area to Donald
Trump or white people in general. Democratic Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib blamed
"white supremacists." Tlaib is herself a Palestinian-American who has
made inflammatory statements about
Jews. Jewish
Currents editor David Klion warned against
"right-wing forces" "exploiting attacks" to
"legitimize racism." An invited speaker at Sunday's rally said that
racism was a problem for "the past three years," that is, the years
that Donald Trump has occupied the White House.
This article hopes to
demonstrate that, contrary to leftist historical revisionism, headline-making
incidents of black antisemitism stretch back decades. Though separated by time
and space, these incidents share enough features to be understood as a cultural
trend, rather than as the bad behavior of isolated lone wolves.
Naming and analyzing black
antisemitism, contra David Klion, is not a "right-wing,"
"racist" exercise. I'm Catholic and Polish-American and I have no
problem calling out Catholic or Polish antisemitism. The folk motif of the
blood libel, the derogatory Polish word "Zydokomuna," the radio broadcasts of Catholic priest Charles Coughlin,
are all part of my heritage. I explicitly reject them, condemn them, and
distance myself from them. No, all African Americans are not antisemitic; only
a minority are, but denunciation is all the more vital and urgent given
persistent efforts to deny the very existence of black antisemitism, and to
silence any discussion of it.
Van Wallach, a Times of Israel blogger, quotes antisemitic themes in
African American writing dating back to 1965. A previous Front Page article mentioned
the 1995 Freddy's Fashion Mart protests that culminated in eight killings, the
deadly 1991 Crown Heights pogrom, Khalid Abdul Muhammad's 1993 speech at Kean
College, and the 2002 Amiri Baraka poem that blamed Jews for the September 11,
2001, terror attacks.
Here's another incident. On
January 17, 1994, Castlemont High School students went to the movies in
Oakland, California. The movie was Schindler's
List. The students talked and laughed continuously
throughout the film until, one hour into the showing, theater manager Allen Michaan
stopped the projector. Audience members, "shaking with anger,"
complained. "I've never seen such furious, hurt customers. Some were
Holocaust survivors, and one woman was sobbing," Michaan said. The students were asked
to leave and their departure was applauded by the audience. A Castlemont
student said that audience members applauding her departure was "so
uncomfortable." An NPR producer
highlighted how victimized the students felt. "There was always a feeling
of being policed or policing yourself if you're young, brown, and carefree in a
white space. That can harden you really quick." Castlemont students'
behavior made national news.
Castlemont is a low-ranked, mostly black and
Hispanic high school. Recent news stories describe it as a place of shootings, homelessness, manipulated test scores, and football protests featuring
Colin Kaepernick himself.
Back in 1994, prominent persons
said that African American students should not be criticized for laughing at
Jewish suffering because African American students have very hard lives and are
victims of oppression. When Schindler's
List producer and director Steven Spielberg visited the
school, the Jerusalem
Post reported on April 13, 1994, "About 100 students and
others protested Spielberg's appearance, saying the Holocaust does not speak
directly to them." "We don't have any problem talking about their Holocaust.
But there hasn't been anything about the Asian holocaust, the Latino holocaust,
the black holocaust," said one Castlemont student. Another student said,
"It was long ago and far away and about people we never met. We don't know
about those concentration camps, but I do hear a lot of Jew jokes."
Another student said, "We see death and violence in our community all the
time. People cannot understand how numb we are toward violence." And
another, "I don't want to hear anything about anybody else's Holocaust before
I hear my own."
Those protesting Spielberg's
visit carried signs that said, "How can a Zionist Jew teach us about
racism and oppression?" and "Zionist Jews are the new Nazis."
Before Spielberg took the mic, a student performed a monologue that began,
"Dear Mr. President, I am a woman with three children and no food to
eat."
California's Republican
Governor, Pete Wilson, accompanied Spielberg. Wilson had previously said that
welfare "seduces teenage girls into a life of poverty and encourages
irresponsibility." One student said to Wilson that she saw his visit
"as an opportunity to vent the anger, and the spite, and the animosity I
feel toward your entire time in office. I mean, I want to know was your main
purpose in portraying yourself through the streets of my city where you have
cut welfare, education, and many young futures, like mine" (sic).
A
Castlemont teacher organized an
"African Holocaust Day. There were musicians and African dancers, lectures
on ancient Egypt and Jim Crow." A speaker "wearing a regal brown and
gold dashiki, a kufi, with a leather-bound neck pouch, walked up and down the
front of a classroom, commanding students' attention, pointing to placards
listing the names of people who had been lynched … This is the Maafa … Maafa is another
word for the African Holocaust." One student's takeaway from these
presentations was the false impression that "Slave ships were owned by
Jews." A Jewish social worker at
the school was asked, "Did your family own slaves?"
Film scholar Dennis Hanlon said that
many students' comments reflected their feeling that "their own history
and suffering were largely ignored and that before they should be asked to
understand another communities' suffering, they should be allowed to learn more
about their own." Spielberg agreed, telling students that they were victims of bad press. Partly in reparations for
these black students' alleged victimization, Steven
Spielberg made Amistad, about a slave uprising.
By 1997, the Washington Post published
the false claim that "The only people who laughed during Schindler's List were
skinheads." National Public Radio's This American Life addressed the
Castlemont incident in 2018. Times
of Israel blogger James Inverne argued
that This American
Life's handling of the topic perpetuated the notion that if
Jews protest against antisemitism expressed by black people, they risk
"creating more hatred towards Jews."
A different event, thousands of
miles away, echoes some of the same themes evident in the Castlemont incident.
Those who insist that "black antisemitism" is a misnomer meant to
distract attention from white racists, a recent invention, or that blacks who
commit antisemitic acts are programmed to do so by white racists or Donald
Trump might be surprised by a New
York Times article entitled, "Jews Debating Black
Antisemitism."
"Confronted by racial and
religious hatred … a shocked Jewish community is debating what to do about
it," the article begins. The article mentions suspicious synagogue fires
in New York City. Some Jewish leaders quoted in the article argue for
"vigorous" condemnation and counter action. Others fear that
"defensive reaction might bring on a backlash and hasten the political
antisemitism that all Jews seek to avoid." Some argue that the Holocaust
ended antisemitism. Others allege that anti-Jewish "incitement" gains
momentum when religious, cultural and political leaders de not rapidly condemn
it. When New York City's mayor did speak out against antisemitism, a black
teacher responded that the mayor was trying to "appease the powerful
Jewish financiers of the city."
"Jews Debating Black
Antisemitism" feels entirely of the moment. It reads as if it had been
published in 2020. It wasn't. The Times published
this article on January 26, 1969, fifty-one years ago. The article is as if
frozen in amber. The same debates are happening today, and there has been no
resolution to them. "Jews Debating Black Antisemitism" concerns one
of the most headline-grabbing outbreaks of allegations of black antisemitism.
These allegations swirled around the 1968 Ocean Hill-Brownsville teachers'
strike.
Brownsville, a Brooklyn
neighborhood, changed over decades from being predominantly Jewish to being
increasingly black. Teachers were often Jewish. In the late sixties, African
American activists demanded community control of schools. These activists were
funded, ironically enough, by the Ford Foundation. This funding source for what
would become an antisemitic manifestation is ironic because Henry Ford himself
was a notorious anti-Semite. By 1968, Henry Ford had been dead for twenty-one
years. His foundation, Heather MacDonald argues, had been
radicalized into a steamroller of leftist social engineering. The Ford
Foundation, MacDonald writes, exercised its considerable financial might to
advance black separatists and anti-Semites. African American Civil Rights
leader Bayard Rustin was critical of the black separatist position, but he
didn't have the heft of the Ford Foundation at his back.
Black activists terminated Jewish teachers.
Albert Shanker lead teachers on what has been called the longest and largest
teachers' strike in US history. Shanker became so nationally prominent that his
name was the punchline in a 1973 Woody Allen movie, Sleepers.
The terminated teachers
protested, saying that they had seniority and that their dismissal was based on
their racial identity, rather than their competence or qualifications. An
African American judge determined that there were no credible accusations against these teachers, but activist Rhody McCoy stated, "Not one of these teachers
will be allowed to teach anywhere in the city. The black community will see to
that." Activist Sonny Carson said, "I don't think that any
white person is interested in giving a black child an education … By any means
necessary [whites] are going to be kept out." Pamphlets appeared alleging that
Jews are "Blood-sucking Exploiters and Murderers … the So-Called Liberal
Jewish Friend … is Really Our Enemy and He is Responsible For the Serious
Educational Retardation of Our Black Children." "The Black Community
Must Unite Itself Around The Need To Run Our Own Schools And To Control Our Own
Neighborhoods Without Whitey Being Anywhere On The Scene," the pamphlet
said.
Inflammatory rhetoric was
sometimes accompanied by violence. Leslie Campbell was a teacher who, like many
involved in this strike, would go on to jettison his "slave name" and
take an African-inspired name, in his case Jitu Weusi. In another case, a
student named "Cheryl" became "Monifa". Campbell / Weusi exhorted his students, "You
have to stop fighting among yourselves … You've got to get your minds together.
If you steal, steal from those who have it. … When the enemy taps you on the
shoulder, send him to the cemetery. You know who your enemy is."
Afterward, three teachers were injured "including one white woman who was
punched, had her hair torn, and her clothes ripped."
The Rev. C. Herbert Oliver was
chairman of the new community-control governing board. He signed the letters
dismissing the Jewish teachers. When he was confronted on how his terminations
would hurt the teachers and also hurt black-Jewish relations, Rev. Oliver said,
"We have had three hundred years of scars and it's about time those scars
were healing." In other words, Rev. Oliver argued that black suffering
trumped any suffering the teachers might experience from being abruptly
dismissed from their jobs, and that progress is a zero sum game. For blacks to
advance, others must go back.
Separatists promoted their idea
of an appropriate education for black students. Students were told that they
descend from the Yoruba tribe, and from "African kings and queens."
They were trained to perform African drumming and dances. One student remembers
feeling humiliated and terrorized by her "white" schoolwork. Students
were taught that "racism is inherent in the educational system" a
system rife with "white privilege and white ignorance." This
"white" schoolwork, for example, taught that Isaac Newton made
advances in the sciences and mathematics. They were taught that Newton's work
was not new, and Africans were the first to come up with innovations attributed
to Newton. Students in the new curriculum read Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, H. Rap
Brown, and Mao Tse Tung. "We became international," one former
student remembers. "It's a good thing because black people are the Third
World." "We're going to do Kwanza and not Christmas," another
student remembered." We will, she said, "get rid of white
Jesus." Students sang the Black National Anthem. (Accounts
can be found here, here, here, here, and here.)
This curriculum suggests at
least one potential irritant between blacks and Jews in the Ocean
Hill-Brownsville strike. When Ashkenazi Jews first arrived in the US in large
numbers in the late nineteenth century, they were a visible, vulnerable, hated
and vilified minority. Many Jewish immigrants to America responded to their
ghetto identity by shaving their beards, adopting American dress, and naming
their children "Sylvia" and "Sheldon," non-Jewish names
selected by Jewish immigrants exactly because the names were not Jewish. These
Americanized Jews became teachers, and no doubt many believed that they were
handing black children the keys they themselves had used to enter Die Goldene Medina, the
Golden Land.
Jews were not just teaching
these keys to success in America. Jews embodied these keys. A mere 23 years
before the strike, Auschwitz and Dachau were still functioning. American Ivy
League universities still had anti-Jewish quotas, and social, housing, travel,
occupation, and employment opportunities were restricted for American Jews. And
yet Jews overcame. Public education played no small part in their rise.
Albert Shanker epitomized this
saga. Shanker's mother, Mamie, was from a family impoverished by antisemitic
laws and corruption in Russia. Mamie herself had to hide in a Christian
neighbor's barrel under potatoes to survive a pogrom. Her half-sister was raped
by soldiers and subsequently died. Shanker's father, "Morris
rose at 2 A.M. seven days a week, pushed a cart stacked with bundles of the
city's half dozen morning newspapers through a five-mile area of Queens, then
returned at 10 A.M. to deliver the afternoon newspapers." Shanker hardly
ever saw his father. His mother worked long hours in
a sweatshop. "So grueling was her work that Mr. Shanker once visited her
factory and could not recognize her as she sat bent in sweaty concentration at
her [sewing] machine." Even so, Mamie bought and discussed novels and
poetry and attended the opera when she could afford the "standing room
only" section. Shanker didn't speak English when he entered school. He
encountered antisemitism. But he excelled. Shanker learned "the
value of public education to civic identity." The phrase "civic
identity" is key. Part of public schools job is "e pluribus unum":
out of many, one. Shanker entered school a despised Jew who could not speak
English. He emerged as an American leader of national importance.
Jewish teachers wanted to hand
these keys over to black students. Their very presence announced, "America
is a Golden Land. We did it. You can, too. Yes, you will face prejudice, but
don't respond with violence or despair; respond with hard work, family support,
and determination." That route was rejected by black nationalists. During
the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike, the Jews who traveled and embodied that
route were rejected, as well.
Dr. Eunice G. Pollack argues that "Black nationalists wanted to discredit the
integrationist movement. Malcolm X called the March on Washington the Farce on
Washington. Black nationalists are black separatists. The way to discredit
integration is to discredit the leading whites of the integrationist movement,
the Jews. 'They are really Nazis. They dominated the slave trade,'" black
nationalists falsely claim of Jews.
Richard D.
Kahlenberg, in Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools,
Unions, Race, and Democracy, argues that
the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike pitted cherished liberal ideals, and two
reliable liberal demographics, against another: blacks v. Jews, unions v.
identity politics, integration v. separatism. Kahlenberg says that liberals
have never resolved the conflicts generated by the strike.
Can white teachers educate
non-white students? If black students do poorly in schools, is that because of
their white teachers' racism? Do black students require "Afrocentric"
curricula to succeed? Do efforts to raise student self-esteem improve student
academic performance? Should liberals support unions and their concept of
seniority, or identity politics and the black-teachers-for-black-students
model? If white teachers can't teach black students, can black teachers teach
white students? Are there such things as educational standards, authority, and
competence, or do standards vary depending on the skin color of the student? Is
it more important for a black student to learn African drumming or reading,
writing, and arithmetic, that is, subjects that have constituted a basic
curriculum for millennia? Is education "white" and
"racist"? Does one group – for example, newly hired black teachers –
rise only at the expense of another group – that is, the Jewish teachers whose
employment was terminated? Can we ever overcome tribalism? Do we want to? Does
progress have to be a zero sum game?
A remarkable document emerged
from the Ocean Hill-Brownsville teachers' strike. On December 26, 1968,
Campbell / Weusi appeared on WBAI, a left-wing radio station. Campbell read a
poem that he said was written by one of his students in response to Jewish
teachers. There are various versions of the poem on the web. One version is below.
Hey Jew boy, with that yarmulke
on your head
You pale faced Jew boy. I wish
you were dead.
I can see you Jew boy. No you
can't hide.
I got a scoop on you. Yeh, you
gonna die.
I'm sick of your stuff …
about the murder of six million
Jews
Hitler's reign lasted for only
fifteen years
For that period of time you
shed crocodile tears
My suffering lasted for over
400 years, Jew boy …
Jew boy, you took my religion
and adopted it for you
But you know that black people
were the original Hebrews.
On January 29, 2019, the
Brooklyn Historical Society hosted a fiftieth-anniversary commemoration of the
Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike. An audience member who identified as a former
teacher and member of the African Teachers' Association recommended the poem. Audience
members applauded. They were probably ignorant of the poem's contents. But no
one on the invited panel of experts objected, and either they knew the contents
of the poem and let the mention slide, or they were not, as identified,
experts.
Again, there are consistent
cultural threads connecting events as dispersed as a teachers' strike over
fifty years ago, a high school field trip twenty-six years ago, and recent
violent attacks. Both the Rev. C. Herbert Oliver and Castlemont high students
cited black suffering as justification for indifference to Jewish suffering.
One version of Jitu Weusi's student's poem identifies Jews as imposters who
have stolen black people's real identity from them. That very libel fueled both
the 2019 Jersey City killers and the Monsey stabber.
The concept of Jews as thieves
of black identity is the new blood libel. It is a metaphor. Those who embrace
it are saying, "Jews, you are paler than I am and you have suffered. You
are stealing my narrative that identifies all blacks as victims and all whites
as privileged. Your suffering teaches people that blacks are not the only
people who have suffered. Suffering offers some rewards, and I will not share
those rewards with you. Suffering is a competition, a kind of Olympic event.
You have the Nazi era? I will claim hundreds of years of slavery and trump you.
If you mention millennia of antisemitism, and that Jews were slaves in Egypt, I
will deny your story and insist that you stole it from me. I will claim that
the Bible's characters were really black."
Responses, too, echo down the
years. Should we ignore black antisemitism, on the grounds that black people
have suffered enough, and are stereotyped enough, and any attention brought to
black antisemitism only increases black people's considerable burdens? If we
draw attention to antisemitic motivations for violent behavior, do we risk
increasing that behavior and damaging important alliances? We asked these
questions fifty years ago, and we ask them today.
Only a minority of black people
are anti-Semites, but those that are, are not lone wolves. They are not
inventing the wheel. Rather, they are steeped in a significant cultural trend,
a trend that persons of conscience will name, confront, analyze, and denounce.
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