"The story of the rise of America’s black working and middle classes is inextricably bound up with that of Detroit and the Big Three. It is not a story with a simple upward trajectory. For a long time, blacks were relegated to the least desirable jobs in the plants and initially confined to a small ghetto on the East Side of the city. But slowly, haltingly, over the course of the 1950s and early ’60s, the plants became fully integrated and black workers spread across Detroit block by block, moving the city’s de facto color line as they went. “It wasn’t that long ago that Detroit was the home of the nation’s most affluent African-American population with the largest percentage of black homeowners and the highest comparative wages,” David Goldberg, an African-American Studies professor at Wayne State University, told me."
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Matt wrote:
I have to say, I have a problem with the way Jews are mentioned in that second link only parenthetically, folding antisemitism into other kinds of racism. There’s a thinking that antisemitism is a symptom of extreme racism, but that’s wrong. The USHMM shooter surely hated all kinds of people. And yet, he didn’t walk into the Holocaust Museum because he hated all kinds of people. He had a particular antipathy to Jews, and you can’t understand why he thought terrorism was an appropriate action without understanding antisemitism.
Antisemitism isn’t merely a corollary to racism. But by treating it that way, the article does what it sets out to oppose. It ignores, or perhaps even recreates, “the less obvious version that plays out in our political debates.”
In fact, Leonard Zeskind, interviewed by the SPLC, recently said:
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 2:06 pm ¶
Aishtamid wrote:
I think Rinku Sen’s article made good points about the current increase in hate crimes not being a product of isolated incidents but rather letting hatred of women, non-whites and Jews incubate. These ideas come from mostly conservative commentators in the media, primarily talk radio, that use coded language to stir up anger against nonwhites.
@Matt – The article was primarily about racism towards POCs that is inspired by hate in the media. Those media engines that use coded language against POCs simply do not do it towards Jews. I have yet to see a credible media figure talk about “international bankers” or “shylocks” causing the economic catastrophe in the same way that they mention “high-risk loans in minority communities” or “illegals” or “unqualified minorities” or “affirmative action picks” etc. etc.
Yes, anti-Semitism is on the rise but that is happening because bigoted people (mostly white men) are feeling marginalized and they are lashing out towards everyone who is different. I think anti-Semitism should be included in this overall trend rather than elevated as a special form of prejudice.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 3:34 pm ¶
Matt wrote:
Those media engines that use coded language against POCs simply do not do it towards Jews.
Right, the mainstream, conservative right doesn’t contain all that much antisemitism (in a relative sense). And yet antisemitic violence is on the rise.
That folding antisemitism into other racisms leads us to look for antisemitism in the wrong places — because it has been on the rise in popular discourse. Just not where Rinku Sen is inclined to look.
I’m not trying to elevate antisemitism above other prejudices (although when people talk about antisemitism as a warning sign, I have mixed feelings, because it is a predictor of violence), but to recognize the differences. Folding it in like that erases the differences, and makes it harder to talk about antisemitism as what it is.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 4:58 pm ¶