A few weeks ago there was a post on a neighborhood social media board that a swastika was drawn in the dirt of the baseball field near my house. It was likely kids who were out being mischievous that morning (including vandalizing some sprinkler heads). I don't know if they were caught for either offense. What was interesting is that there was a great deal of discussion about this that didn't center on the fact it was a symbol of hate. One person posted a long and factual statement about the history of the symbol which was used in many cultures and still used today. Before the Nazis corrupted it was a symbol of hope, joy and other positive messages in India, the Middle East and among Native people in North America. You will see it adorning old churches and even synagogues going back centuries and when I was a kid the Frederic Remington Art Memorial has Remington's studio recreated in the building. The museum was in my home town and we visited often on school trips. I will never forget seeing the set of silverware that include the swastika with other symbols prominently displayed. I asked about them and heard the story of items, but the symbol still felt uncomfortable. Other people thought we need to teach more about the Holocaust. But there were some who wrote it off as ignorance, as no big deal. Saying they probably didn't understand what they were doing.
That attitude of allowing ignorance being an excuse for hateful gestures is problematic. In recent weeks we have seen football players and a national television host promote virulent anti-Semitic diatribes in public forums. Ignorance was of course was the excuse. One football player, DeSean Jackson, met with a Holocaust survivor and has accepted and invitation to travel to Auschwitz to learn. He offered a sincere apology and maybe just maybe with better understand the history he so easily diminished and that the tropes that rolled off his tongue without hesitation were wrong. Maybe.
There are those who see that there are members of the African American community have a blind spot to the history of other oppressed groups and that Jews have been a target of resentment by Black America, especially among Black Nationalist leaders and Black Muslim leaders, like Louis Farrakhan. Jemele Hill, a former ESPN commentator and a staff writer for The Atlantic writing about Jackson says:
"Regardless of what happens with Jackson, the unfortunate truth is that some Black Americans have shown a certain cultural blindspot about Jews. Stereotypical and hurtful tropes about Jews are widely accepted in the African American community," Hill wrote. "As a kid, I heard elders in my family say in passing that Jewish people were consumed with making money, and that they 'owned everything.' My relatives never dwelled on the subject, and nothing about their tone indicated that they thought anything they were saying was anti-Semitic—not that a lack of awareness would be any excuse. This also doesn’t mean that my family—or other African Americans—are more or less anti-Semitic than others in America, but experiencing the pain of discrimination and stereotyping didn’t prevent them from spreading harmful stereotypes about another group."
Hill herself had a moment of antisemitism when she used the idea of Hitler in a joke about the Celtics when at ESPN. She, like Jackson, took the time during the response to not get defensive, writing in the same Op-Ed that she now cringes at the thought of the lack of empathy for the Jews because it wasn't her and notes that if someone made a joke about slavery then she would have similar reaction.
Since Jackson's words because public we have also seen another black celebrity, Nick Cannon, say similar things. He has since apologized, such that it was, and I hope he too will take time to learn or more importantly unlearn what he thinks he knows about Jews. Too often what is taught both informally within a culture and sometimes in formal settings can be quite hateful. Not that Jews are the only victims but more often then not, like the Swastika in the ball field, when Jews are attacked it is more easily forgiven. Nick Cannon will still keep his job. Jackson is seen as a role model for admitting ignorance and so many others, well, their message doesn't make the news. This week on Rachel Maddow's television show, Mary Trump, niece of the President and writer of a family secrets book, revealed the President comfortably used antisemitic and racist language among friends and family. (It is not in the book this was in response to a question). There are already voices saying that it was common in his generation.
And that is the problem. The normalcy of certain types of language and thinking makes it harder to confront. When Mel Gibson has is epic meltdown so many years ago that was an antisemitic rant, well within the line of who he is as a person by all accounts, he was vilified. He is now seen again as a top actor and director in Hollywood (that he ironically said was run by the Jews). We cannot and should not accept this in our diverse culture. Allowing a pass to people because Jews currently aren't as oppressed as other minority groups in this country is dangerous and we know this because synagogue around the country have to post guards for security. In Poway and Pittsburgh people repeating the same tropes that Jackson and Cannon expressed shot Jews at worship. I know, because as a Jewish professional I have to read reports of what is going on around the world when Jews are attacked. I know because I get phone calls from colleagues asking me how to discuss the graffiti spray painted on the gravestones in the Jewish cemetery.
People talk about the horror of cancel culture which I am not sure exists. Antisemitic ideology is no longer seen as disgusting but as a political position both on the right and the left. American Nazis comfortable march in communities (as is their right) often preaching violence as they march. Leftist groups verbally attack Jewish organizations who would be allies and some leaders like Farrakhan continue to avoid criticism from political leaders when they should be shunned.
As culture when we let any kind of hate and ignorant be written off we let the disease fester. We will be better if we not only shine a light on this but totally purge it. It might take a lot of education, there may be some who will never learn, but we must try. We must stand up. As I write this the country mourns the death John Lewis and C T Vivian, two icons of the Civil Rights movement who did just that. They stood up to hate and ignorance their whole lives. If you posted something this weekend to mourn their loss then it is up to you to make sure the Good Trouble you choose to engage in includes everyone. Let's cut out the disease of hate.
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