antisemitism largely is political is it not?
I mean why support Israel in the first place? Especially if you aren’t religous?
No, it isn’t well it isn’t in the sense that it stems from politics. Antisemitism exists no matter if Israel does. It is just a different form of racism.
Yes all racism has some political component because it is about both hate and power, but the politics (especially in the case of Israel) is a cover for many people who just want to express hate.
In other words, this thread isn’t about the political persuasion of antisemites or which party has more of them or anything related to red vs blue.
I have nothing against Jews, personally.
Jews and Palestinians (and I’m aware that Jews have dealt with discrimination outside of the conflict) both got screwed over by history for whatever reason, as have black people (but more so economically) with legal discrimination for the most part being socially unacceptable.
The difference is that Jewish people (from an American lense) are seen as wealthy and therefore discrimination against them seems illegitimate. Black people, outside of entertainers/athletes and the few successful black business owners, are still economically dealing with systemic racism that makes it impossible for many of them to escape poverty and crime, which is why it’s legitimized a bit more (not to me personally, I understand it’s more complicated than this. I’m speaking from the perspective of someone that’s more 1-demensional)
The US government, does not help black people due to capitalists interest, but the government does spend tax payer money to help Israel remain strong in the Middle East, which reinforces antisemitism
Does institutionalized racism make antisemitism ok because it isn’t institutionalized? Does fighting antisemitism or bringing awareness of it diminish the fight against racism in any way? What about black Jews, who may face both antisemitism and racism? What about antisemitism from the black community?
I’m just trying to bring awareness of antisemitism, not having a pissing contest over who is more marginalized.
Also, keep in mind, it wasn’t that long ago that Jews couldn’t buy homes in River Oaks, join many country clubs, or get hired at the top law firms even if they were top of their class in law school.
Lastly, there are still forms of institutional antisemitism that exist today. The Jewish High Holidays are almost upon us, there are still schools (such as HISD recently) and employers who ignore those dates when planning or scheduling events. We have also seen it loud and clear in the difference of how Jewish students are treated by their administrations when they raise issues of antisemitism. There is also institutionalized antisemitism in the news media and politically in the way events involving Israel are covered or the reaction to them from the political class.
Feel free to start a thread on racism awareness but please don’t come to this one to debate about the politics of antisemitism or hijack this thread to be a referendum about Israel.
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I will add here that the US government does help black people just as much. Unfortunately, they do it with those living outside the US. Also there are lots of black Jews.
Last thing about the aid, it isn’t a straight cash transfer. Some of it comes in loan guarantees, quite a bit of it comes from selling weapons to Israel. Weapons that are built in American factories which give Americans jobs.
You’re right. There’s no point in playing the marginalization contest nor am I trying to do that. All I’m saying is that in the general American zeitgeist, Antisemitism is not as socially punished as black systemic racism, largely because of the stereotype of Jewish wealth. Do I think this is correct? No, I don’t.
I’m not Jewish, but I know you are (and/or have relatives that are Jewish), but I wouldn’t ever expect antisemitism to ever go away. It never will, and neither will systemic racism.
HISD (or any school district) getting rid of Jewish Holidays is similar to rejecting “Wokeness” or Critical Race Theory or banning books that speak on historical racism (and much of this is occurring in, I hate to say it, suburban neighborhoods which are naturally conservative even if just fiscally)
If that was your point, you could have said it just like that and been much more succinct. Instead you started with antisemitism is more prevalent in liberal left.
I agree that hate will never go away, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of a cause to fight for.
That’s incorrect.
I said Academia at the elite levels are overwhelmingly liberal (given a Cornell professor supporting Hamas was rehired at the university), which tends lend more radical followed by antisemitic views.
This will never change, because Academia is naturally a radical left pipeline due to classism and elitism
I don’t understand why you think so many things will “never” change. Again, this was about antisemitism awareness and not about the political persuasion of antisemites.
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3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Cynical Beliefs on Class and Race Relations
Antisemitism is not about Israel (solely). Antisemitism is hate of Jews. As I’ve said many times already my point with this thread was to bring awareness to antisemitism and how pervasive it is. It is not to have a referendum on Israel or get into any red vs blue fight. However you continually go back there.
When I say I don’t understand why you think some things never will change, I don’t understand your lack of hope. It was in general not asking you for a list of the impediments to change.
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I don’t disagree with that, but majority of the current wave of antisemitism largely stems from the Israel-Palestine conflict. It’s the direct reason for the spike in Antisemitism in America.
When 9/11 happened, Islamophobia spiked.
I don’t have hope things will change because I don’t believe that Capitalism wants things to change unless it can make money from said changes. Please tell me a single time in US history where any type of change actually benefited everyone.
It explains why many vote blue.
Yes, it is but antisemitism had been rising for several years before October 7. The conflict caused it to spike, it also gave some people cover to be antisemitic publicly in the name of freeing Palestine. However it isn’t the cause of antisemitism.
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Wow.
This is also a mind boggling story from Canada.
How come protesters don’t give a darn about Muslim in Darfur.
Not a word. Not a word from any of the Squad or anyone else.
Oh, no Jews involved in that one.
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@HCNY I know that story about the field trip was in Canada but with your experience with field trips gonewrong, any thoughts?