The Human Question

Coming from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and doing community organizing work in predominately Black neighborhoods, the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities has been a pet issue of mine for some time. I've never been able to get to the bottom of it, it's like a key puzzle piece in their unease with each other was missing from my understanding; I somehow knew the Black community had committed a grave offense against the Jewish community, I just couldn't figure out what.

After looking into the Farrakhan issue over the past few days, I am shocked and appalled with what I've found. No wonder people hate Farrakhan so much; the man has blood on his hands. I've been researching the Crown Heights riots for the last few days. It's incomprehensible, and yet it's not, because it's not the first time… but there, then? I wonder if Obama understands all the implications of the statement "the past isn't dead and buried, it isn't even past"?

Obama says he wants to mend the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities, but we cannot do that without acknowledging and understanding the depth & rudiment of the problem.

Farrakhan published a book "The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews", spewing anti-Semitic propaganda, and a few months after its publication an anti-Semitic riot broke out in Crown Heights, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. The riot started after an automobile accident involving a Jewish driver where a Black child was killed.

More than 100 police officers, some in riot helmets, surrounded the accident scene as more than 250 neighborhood residents, mostly black teen-agers shouting "Jews! Jews! Jews!" jeered the driver of the car, a Hasidic man, and then turned their anger on the police.

The New York Times: Fatal Crash Starts Melee with Police in Brooklyn By John T. McQuiston Published: August 20, 1991

Two people in the neighborhood were murdered in anti-Jew hate crimes later that night. Over the next three days rioters ran around Crown Heights screaming anti-Semitic slurs and committing hate crimes. During the riot and its aftermath, New York City's first Black mayor, David Dinkins, fucked up like Bush did Katrina, resulting in Giuliani's election in '93.

For those of you more familiar with Black-White racism than anti-Semitism, imagine picking up a copy of the New York Times with a picture of a few Black men hanging from trees. When you check the caption it reads "New York City, 1991". How would you feel? Given the history of anti-Jewish riots preceding the holocaust, the emotional connotation is the same, and that is exactly how I feel right now.

I, personally, feel less safe than I did before I read about this. I used to think this couldn't happen here, today, and that's why I didn't understand why people hated Farrakhan so much. Words are just that, crackpots talk shit on the internet all day and night; it's the people who listen to hateful words and act on them who are the problem. It never occurred to me something like this could happen here, but it did, and that scares the hell out of me. A New York Times commentator (and former executive director) , A. M. Rosenthal said "American Jews who do not understand that the same kind of political thugs will try now to lead the same kind of street thugs to burn Jewish property and break Jewish bones in other cities are blind to reality, deaf to history -- and suicidal." He's right, in that if nothing had been done to stop to it, it probably would have spread. Perhaps that's just fear talking on my part and his, but knowing what has resulted from such things in the past it doesn't require much imagination to draw a conclusion like that.

They say "all politics are personal". A few months ago I was at a café in my neighborhood with two friends or friendly acquaintances, one made a somewhat racist comment which starting a long discussion deconstructing it. This was memorable because it was the only time I ever 'lost' that argument. All three of us had been physically attacked by Black people at some point in the past. The person who made the racist comment which started the conversation admitted that his discomfort came from the fact he'd been harassed and assaulted by a group of Black kids making anti-Semitic slurs when he was much younger. The third person there and I both have suspected that what happened to us had something to do with their perception we were Jewish. Though I try to tell myself it had nothing to do with it, because I have no reason to believe it did, it's a suspicion I can't get out of my mind, despite my conscious effort to do so. Is any of this rational? Of course not, but people's reaction to violence never is. It's human.

I understand the issue of Black against Black crime and violence is a much bigger issue than Black against Jewish crime and/or violence, and that if leaders in the Black community had any control over it, they would have addressed the issue in their communities a long time ago. I know people take the attitude that criminal behavior by members of their community outside their neighborhood is the police's problem, not theirs. The police do deal with it, but not without hurting innocent people in the process. Racial profiling, putting innocent people in prison, and arresting old ladies for crossing the street in the wrong place, as Giuliani did, is not a solution.

What is inexcusable and unforgivable, is blaming Jews for the problems in the Black community. That attitude is destructive to both our communities, and cannot be tolerated if we're going to rectify the relationship between our communities. I understand that poverty, desperation, and lack of education, create an atmosphere where myths and superstitions thrive; all the more reason not to spread hateful lies about others. People like Lewis Farrakhan who spread lies blaming Jews for the problems in the Black community, for slavery, and/or spew other anti-Semitic bullshit, are responsible not only for the division between our communities, but for hurting & killing innocent people.

It's not like this kind of crap ended 20 years ago either. Just this February a Black preacher passed anti-Jew hate flyers around the district of Jewish congressman, Steve Cohen, who represents a predominately Black district in Memphis, Tennessee. Not only that, but they were mailed to Cohen's office, and to leaders of the Jewish community in Memphis.

"Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus," the headline read in bold letters…

Last week, he circulated another flyer with a similar headline and inflammatory message. In part, it read: "... If this district was predominantly Jewish, Steve Cohen and the Jewish voters would NOT elect a Black to this office."

Rep. Cohen is dumfounded. "I don't know where this man is coming from. This is bizarre. It's just ridiculous," he said. "I didn't think things would be this stark" before the campaign begins.

TriState Defender: Jews Hate Jesus Flyer, The Source

If you want to build trust between the Black and Jewish communities, censure Reverend George Brooks for the anti-Jew hate fliers he spread around Memphis denigrating Judaism and Cohen. Spreading such inflammatory lies about Judaism has killed before, and can again. These flyers are a threat to the Jewish community in Memphis, and Brooks should be held accountable for them by his peers. Representative Cohen has acted admirably through this affair in not making a commotion out of it.

The best thing Obama can do to fight Brooks' despicable actions is to endorse Congressman Cohen, and issue a strong condemnation of Brooks & everyone who tolerates his behavior. We must ensure such appalling tactics backfire, so they aren't used again. If Obama were to personally address this issue, it would be a step in the right direction to rebuild the relationship between our communities, and could help alleviate some of the remaining doubts about his commitment to the Jewish community. Cohen was one of Obama's earliest endorsers, he has been campaigning for Obama, and against the charges Obama is anti-Semitic, since the beginning of Obama's campaign. Obama endorsing Cohen would help both candidates, but more importantly it's the right thing to do.

The Jewish community has been unbelievably patient in not publicly drawing a pattern from this kind of crap, perhaps too patient, as the pattern is clearly evident for everyone to see. Not talking about these problems won't make them go away. People are reacting emotionally to these issues despite their failure to recognize them intellectually; then the Black community takes offense at that seemingly irrational response, and uses it to as confirmation for the stereotypes causing the problem. It's a destructive cycle, and it has to stop.

We cannot mend the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities until anti-Semitism in the Black community is addressed. As Wright said, you can't keep stepping on someone's toes, and expect them to accept your apology. It is my suspicion the never ending questions about Obama & Israel aren't about really about Israel at all, but are a roundabout way for people to ask for an assurance they can trust Obama more than they could Mayor Dinkins. Am I suggesting Crown Heights is a factor in this election? Yes, things like that cannot be forgotten, and what happened there is still too close to another open wound for it to be forgiven. We've been avoiding these issues for almost 20 years now, but as America is about to elect its first Black president, we can avoid them no longer.

I've seen the Farrakhan issue described by saying he offended "powerful Jewish leaders"; it's not the people in power you should be concerned about, but the helpless and innocent people dead or injured because of the things he said. To rebuild the relationship between the Black & Jewish communities, it's not only Obama who needs to denounce Farrakhan, but respected local leaders in the Black community. When people like Reverend Wright denounce Farrakhan, Brooks, and stand up to anti-Semitism in their communities, the relationship between our communities can be restored. I will take your hand in this effort, but I need someone to take mine in return.