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It's Tuesday! And we're unpacking the rise in antisemitism and the history of the divide – and unity – between the Black and Jewish communities. Antisemitism runs deep in white supremacy, but today's newsletter focuses specifically on the hateful rhetoric shared by prominent Black men in the media. As a Black woman, it pains me to see how our experience with racism doesn't always make us more sensitive and empathetic to other forms of discrimination and violence.
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Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Join the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate and #48HoursSilence boycott on Twitter.
If you identify as Black and/or Jewish: Talk about how anti-Blackness or antisemitism shows up with your family. How can you commit to advocating for that community's needs? Have the recent events detracted you from the other's fight for justice?
GET EDUCATED
Antisemitism in the News
The news has been filled with antisemitism rhetoric, much of which has been perpetuated by high-profile, Black men. Some examples in the media include the following:
On July 4th, Louis Farrakhan used his platform on YouTube for his annual Criterion Speech. In the speech, he blames Jews and their control and power for the “ills of the world.” The speech reached over 200, 000 viewers digitally (YouTube).
On July 6th, DeSean Jackson of the NFL’s Philadephia Eagles shared anti-Semitic tweets, one of which claims to quote Hitler (CNN).
On July 16th, Nick Cannon, the host of Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” was fired from Viacom after an anti-Semitic conversation with longtime anti-semite and rapper Richard Griffin (Newsweek).
Over the weekend of July 26, British rapper Wiley posted a string of anti-Semitic comments, prompting the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate and #48HoursSilence walkout on Twitter (CNN)
These instances align with a concerning rise in antisemitism over the past couple of years. The Anti-Defamation League's annual audit determined there were 2,107 antisemitic incidents in 2019, a 12% increase from the 1,879 that were recorded in 2018, and many organized by white supremacist organizations (ADL Website). But racial tensions have long been fraught between the Black and Jewish communities, most notably in cases like the Crown Height riots of 1991, which began with the death of a 7-year-old Black boy (Atlantic), and the brutal attack at a Hasidic rabbi’s home in Monsey, N.Y. (NYTimes).
This influx in antisemitic rhetoric by Black people in the midst of a racial equity movement begs us to question and examine the relationship between Black and Jewish communities. Although both communities have experienced discrimination, displacement, terror, and trauma by the same white supremacist groups (Forbes), relations between them are tenuous and stem from a deep history of misconceptions.
Antisemitism and Blackness
The rise in antisemitism within the Black community often stems from disparities in economic opportunity and religious centrism. But first, it’s important to note that many of the ideologies that were used to oppress and discriminate against Jews were the same ones used to dominate and control Blacks after the transatlantic slave trade. This is an insight that Malana, who refers to herself as a “Black & Jewish educational fairy godmother,” explained in a comprehensive tweet thread that's been featured by major publications. She takes us through history from the beginning.
“Historically, the very idea of racism initially came from Spain and its treatment of Jews during the Inquisition,” she wrote. “These types of racial codifications were later used to entrench chattel slavery in what would become the U.S.” (Twitter).
Malana Krongelb has been sharing consistently about Blackness and anti-Semitism. Follow her at @malanasqueendom.
Indeed, some of the first set of discriminatory laws based on race were written in 1449 in Spain. The birth of these laws set forth a chain of events that later resulted in other laws, like the Jim Crow laws of the South, used to subjugate and control a different group of people because of their race (Atlas Obscura).
Economic Opportunity
Lee Sigelman from George Washington University argues that the economic success of Jews and their historical presence and power within financial systems perpetuates negative attitudes towards Jews, especially from Black men, as Black people in America have been historically disenfranchised and denied access to wealth and wealth accumulation (JSTOR).
Many Jews were the key stakeholders to loans or homes that Black families wanted and needed. With the wide-spread discrimination of Black families by the banking and real estate industries, many people in the Black community expressed resentment towards Jews and their position of economic power (JSTOR).
Cannon mentioned “The Rothschilds” in his podcast interview, a reference to a long-held stereotype against Jews. The Rothschilds were a prominent Jewish family and banking dynasty that spanned across and controlled Europe for the greater part of 200 years. The patriarch, Mayer Rothschild was known as “The Founding Father of International Finance” (Britannica). When people talk about “The Rothschilds,” it is a reference to the perceived power and dominance Jews have over financial, political, and other major global systems.
But it's important to note that not all people in the Jewish community are bankers and financiers. Furthermore, Malana notes that “many Jewish people in Europe were forced to work in banking because of laws restricting them from entering other types of work,” and “it was the racist/anti-Semitic structures that pushed Jewish people into that system in the first place” (Twitter). This unfair stereotype perpetuates the racist rhetoric between communities.
Religious Centrism
The belief of being a “chosen” people is also something shared by many in the Black and Jewish communities, but its result is discord. Henry Goldschmidt of Wesleyan University posited that Blacks and Jews “use narratives of biblical history and Israelite descent to define what is typically described as their ‘racial’ and ‘religious’ identities— and conversely use race and religion to support their claims to Israelite history and define themselves as the chosen people” (JSTOR).
This religious centrism puts them directly at odds with one another. Some members of the Black community have expressed the desired ownership over the term “Semitic,” which means “relating to or denoting a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family” (Oxford). But, as Malana emphasizes, one group’s liberation is not dependent on the erasure of another (Twitter).
Anti-Semitism, Anti-Blackness and Whiteness
The important thing to remember when analyzing the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities isn't the differences, but what they have in common. Antisemitism, like anti-Blackness, are both rooted in whiteness and white nationalism, regardless of who expresses it. Our system is designed to pin communities against one another, and often, marginalized communities attack each other to grapple for relative power that feels more accessible than the whole. The notion that a group can be "better" than another is in itself a concept started and perpetuated by white nationality and Christianity (Newsweek).
And when conversations about one marginalized community turning against another dominate the headlines, it shifts the responsibility away from the majority, eschewing them from responsibility. Tablet Magazine notes that, despite the tabloids in January 2020, there is no evidence that Black Americans are driving the rise in antisemitic violence, which was re-iterated in the data from the ADL audit mentioned above (Tablet Mag).
Intersectionality as a Black Jew
It's also easy to forget in this narrative there are over 200,000 Black Jews in America who may feel forced to pick sides (J Weekly). The stories of one community against another can erase the intersectionality of many who identify as both Jewish and non-white (among many other types of social locations and identities that cause further marginalization). In these cases, in particular, it’s important to listen to the stories of Black Jewish people, who are facing both anti-Blackness and antisemitism in everyday life. Story Maps shares more examples. Malana herself noted that “a lot of Black trolls have been coming at me saying I am only saying this because I am anti-Black, and that I am anti-Black because I am mixed race” (Twitter).
“I know lots of white Jewish people are racist. I know lots of Black people are anti-Semitic. I know these communities have hurt each other and I know from personal experience it is much harder to be Black in the US than it is to be Jewish. But all oppression is connected”.
Malana Krongelb, educator and writer, via Twitter
Despite all of this, Black and Jewish communities are often united together as allies (CNN). Many Black civil rights leaders have rallied against anti-Semitism and violence against Jewish people (Tablet Mag). And the two communities have always been powerful when we've rallied together to fight injustices throughout history (Newsweek). We must commit to denouncing antisemitism along with other anti-racism movements to ensure that we dismantle systemic oppression for all.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There's been a rise in antisemitic language over the past couple years, accelerated by recent hateful rhetoric by prominent Black men
The Jewish and Black communities have had a tenuous relationship, despite the commonalities in their experience
Pitting marginalized groups against one another can eschew the responsibility of racism and discrimination from those most privileged and powerful
The liberation of one community is impossible without the liberation of another
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