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| Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King |
A Jewish ‘reporter’ by the name of Ami Horowitz asked members of a black community somewhere in Brooklyn why they think there has been an increase in black antisemitism. The answers he recorded seem to indicate that a majority of black people are antisemitic. Most of his respondents – repeated an assortment of antisemitic tropes about us.
It is indeed disturbing to hear anyone saying things like this about all of us as though they were obvious facts. In essence they believe Jews enrich themselves by exploiting poor black people - giving nothing back to that community in return.
The conclusion by the casual viewer might be that black people are innately antisemitic. But, I do not believe that for a moment. How then can I explain this interview?
For starters, the views expressed are almost identical to those of Minister Louis Farrakahn, leader of the Nation of Islam. This is a man that caters to the poorest and least educated of black people with an appealing message blaming ‘the Jews’ for all their problems.
How does he get away with spreading that message? In order for someone to believe the ‘big lie’ there has to be an element of truth upon which to build that lie. In this case there are a few Jewish slumlords that do in fact take advantage of their tenants - most of whom are black - and enrich themselves in the process. Making it easy for someone like Farrakhan to paint us all with this broad scapegoating brush. And when people like Father Michael Pfleger publicly embrace people like this - as he did not too long ago - it lends credibility to their antisemitic views.
And Farrakhan is not alone. There are black Christian ministers that regurgitate the same drivel that Farrakahn does. As Jeremiah Wright was famously discovered to have done when former President Obama was a parishioner (...before he was elected. He disavowed those views before the election – and I believe him.)
Hate speech is a lot easier to penetrate the uneducated mind - and accept as gospel that Jews are responsible for all the troubles in the world.
Adding fuel to that fire is the fact that there is a lot of racism on the part of far too many identifiably Orthodox Jews - that can be heard making the kind of racist remarks that dehumanize black people as being stupid, violent, and dangerous!
It is not too much of leap from there to see why there is antisemtism among a significant number of black people. While most of those people would not act on those beliefs, some of them do. Which is why there might have been so many recent violent attacks against identifiable Jews by black people.
So yes, while it was disturbing to watch that video - at the same time, I do not believe that this attitude characterizes the vast majority of black people. Antisemitism is not innate. It is learned. And spreads easily among the less educated by rabble rousing demagogues like Louis Farrakhan and James Wright.
Although there are some notable exceptions, I believe the more educated an individual is about any ethnicity, race, or religion, the less likely they are to be racist or antisemitic. The average middle class black is educated and no more antisemitic than the average middle class white.
That being said, the question remains why black anitsemitism seems to be more widespread than white antisemitism. That might be a function of two things. One being the relative proportion of black people who have not had the same opportunities to get a decent education as white people. Which makes them easier to manipulate into believing antisemitic tropes. And the other being that in places like Brooklyn there are huge numbers of identifiable Jews that are easy targets.
The real leaders of the black community realize the truth. One of the greatest and most consequential leaders of the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King, knew that truth. He knew that the Jewish community was – by proportion – the single largest community of people helping to advance the righteous cause of civil rights. (Which he eventually paid for with his life.) MLK walked practically arm in arm a with a Kipa wearing Jewish leader many times during his civil rights marches. MLK influenced a lot more of his people (all people in fact) than Louis Farrakhan can ever hope to.
I believe that most black people are fair minded about us and view us favorably. Perhaps even more fair minded than some Orthodox Jews view them. Which in my mind makes this video even more disturbing. It leaves the viewer with the impression that all (or the vast majority of) black people innately hate us. And that big lie exacerbates in far too many of us the already existing prejudice against them.
