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Jewish World Review / Dec. 12, 1998 / 13 Kislev, 5759
Jonathan Tobin
Good news...
and bad news
Anti-Semitism's only stronghold in America
WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER HEAR FIRST, the good news or the bad news? Like the
stereotypical Jewish telegram which states "Start worrying, details to
follow," the latest Anti-Defamation League survey of anti-Semitism in
America is deeply troubling despite its lead statistics.
So here's the good news first. The ADL reports that the number of Americans
polled who are free from anti-Semitic views has risen to 53 percent. That's
up from 39 percent in 1992 when the last such poll was taken. That means that
fewer Americans over 18 think that American Jews have "too much control" of
Wall Street or the media.
Jews no longer have to
abandon their Jewish identity to rise in America. Men like Sen. Joseph Lieberman
have proved that open devotion to Jewish values and practice is not only no
longer a burden to Jews but something non-Jews respect.
To that we all must be thankful.
THE UNPLEASANT TRUTH OF BLACK ANTI-SEMITISM
Based on my own reporting, unfortunately the poll sounds right on target. In
the course of covering the furor over whether the Hartford public schools
should be closed in honor of the Nation of Islam's so-called "Million Man
March" I heard a Jew being called a "Christ-Killer" by a Muslim to applause
from a black audience. On another occasion during the course of my duties on
the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, I was myself
subjected to repeated abuse by African-Americans who claimed that "Jews are
frauds" -- an echo of the weird ideology of the NOI which seeks to demonizes
whites in general and Jews in particular.
Blacks are not the only anti-Semites in America --- we still have Pat
Buchanan
and the wackos of the militias and the Klan. But blacks are the only group
where such sentiments seem so prominent.
The anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist attitudes of Jesse Jackson, the rise of the
Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, as well as the prominence of other Jew-
haters such as Khalid Muhmmad and Leonard Jeffries have all pointed in the
same direction. Though the majority of African-Americans do not support
their
ideas, the Farrakhans are not treated as members of the lunatic fringe.
Instead, they are feted as leaders of that community not only by blacks
themselves but by the rest of America. Witness, the fact that Farrakhan,
whose
evil nuttiness was demonstrated on national television during his "Million
Man
March" is nonetheless accorded the status of national celebrity and worthy
of
appearances on programs like "Meet the Press."
A FOUNDING FATHER OF BLACK JEW-HATRED Temple
University
Professor Thaddeus P. Mathis wrote last week in the Philadelphia Inquirer
that
"the life of Kwame Toure, provides a standard by which to measure
leadership...the clarity of his vision for a better America and his
principled
and dedicated leadership live on as criteria by which leaders over the ages
can be judged." In that piece and elsewhere, little was said of his legacy
of
hate.
Considering the ADL survey results, when Mathis wrote that Toure set
the
tone for the last three decades of African-American intellectuals, I'd have
to
admit he was right.
Toure came to prominence in the 1960's as the head of the Student
Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee or SNCC. SNCC was originally organized by white and
black southern students who were followers of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King,
Jr. But Toure had other ideas.
Starting in 1966, Toure won enormous media attention with violent statements
including a call for racist warfare by blacks. In particular, Toure lashed
out
at the Jews and Israel. Even after he changed his name and moved to Africa,
he
gained steady applause on U.S. campus speaking tours with his refrain of
"the
only good Zionist is a dead Zionist." He claimed the black community was
"controlled by an alien ethnic group." Who was that group: "The culture in
our
community is controlled by Zionist agents," he told an ABC news show.
Toure set the standard for a generation of anti-Semitic rap. The familiar
litany included the following canards: that Jews controlled the African
slave
trade; that Jewish control of Hollywood had lent itself to the degradation
of
blacks; that Israel was a racist nation oppressing people of color, that
American Jews subjugated and exploited African-Americans in America's inner
cities; and that Jewish doctors were deliberately injecting the HIV virus
which causes AIDS into black babies. Along with the rest of the pseudo-
intellectual cant that masquerades as an intellectual discipline called
"Afrocenterism," was the charge that the Jews of today were imposters since
the Jews of the Bible were actually black!
That this awful stuff echos the worst propaganda of 19th and early 20th
century European anti-Semites (who ironically also hated blacks) makes it
all
numbingly familiar. But what other studies have shown is that this sort of
thinking is more prominent among educated African-Americans. They are a
minority, but a significant one.
FORGET ABOUT 'INGRATITUDE'
What we don't need is a chorus of American Jews crying ingratitude because
of
Jewish support for civil rights in the past. Blacks don't owe Jews anything.
While a larger percentage of Jews stood up for civil rights than most
Americans, most were still silent. But by the same token, Jews owe blacks no
apologies for slavery or anything else. The myths about the so-called
alliance
of blacks and Jews has been exploited by both sides.
What we need is a fresh start and honesty. And also, perhaps a lowering of
expectations. But so long as Jew-haters such as Kwame Toure and Louis
Farrakhan are accorded a place of honor by African-American intellectuals,
the
future of dialogue on those terms is
This study, which was conducted by the Boston firm of Marttila
Communications/Kiley & Co., confirms what many of us have already concluded:
Old anti-Jewish stereotypes which have been a part of mainstream American
thought for over a century are fading. Where once anti-Semitism was the
instinct of the majority of Americans, it has now retreated to the margins
of society. It is no longer possible to assert that anti-Jewish attitudes pose
a barrier to Jewish success or social acceptance.
But here's the bad news: The ADL survey's "index of anti-Semitic belief"
shows
that in one segment of American society, Jew-hatred is still strong is among
African-Americans. 34 percent of black Americans fit into the ADL's category
of most anti-Semitic. That is compared to only 9 percent of the general
population.
If we needed any further proof of this trend, there was also the reaction to
the death last month of another prominent African-American hater: Kwame
Toure
a.k.a. Stokley Carmichael. Toure, who died in Guinea, West Africa, was
lauded
around the country as a "seminal" thinker and black leader.
What do we do about it? The ADL's Abe Foxman has rightly called for a more
"vigorous effort" to combat this virus of anti-Semitism. He's right and we
have a solid base of the overwhelming majority Jews who are not racist and
blacks who are not anti-Semitic to build on.
JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He was
the recipient of the American Jewish Press Association highest award: First
Place in The Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary and Editorial
Writing. The Rapoport award is named for the longtime editor of the
Jerusalem Post and was given to Mr. Tobin at the AJPA's 1997 Simon Rockower Awards dinner
at Cleveland on June 18, 1998.
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