The idea that the core of white supremacy’s hatred and fear of anyone “other” – specifically Black, brown, and other people of color – is a hatred and fear of Jewish people isn’t something I knew. Eric Ward is the Western States Center’s Executive Director and Senior Fellow with Southern Poverty Law Center and Race Forward, and he lays it out in this short video, “Antisemitism isn’t AT the core of white nationalism, it IS the core of white nationalism“

Eric goes into more depth in this fascinating article, Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism

He questions the assumption of whiteness that Jews of Eastern European descent like myself believe we have in the U.S. – something new in the last fifty years. Some resonant quotes/moments from the article include:

That the rise of Trump and his supporters is a chance for we

“…ostensibly ‘White’ Jews to contemplate the provisional nature of their Whiteness, their privilege. Privilege, after all, is not the same as power. Privilege can be revoked.” —Eric Ward

“if we recognize that White privilege really is privilege, what will it mean for Jewish antiracists to give up the fantasy that they ever really had it to begin with?” —Eric Ward

The article was written during the Trump presidency, and Eric put it this way:

“antisemitism fuels White nationalism, a genocidal movement now enthroned in the highest seats of American power, and fighting antisemitism cuts off that fuel for the sake of all marginalized communities under siege from the Trump regime and the social movement that helped raise it up. To refuse to deal with any ideology of domination, moreover, is to abet it.” —Eric Ward

And this moment was striking:

“If we acknowledge that White nationalism clearly and forcefully names Jews as non-white, and did so in the very fiber of its emergence as a post-civil rights right-wing revolutionary movement, then we are forced to recognize our own ignorance about the country  we thought we lived in. It is time to have that conversation.” —Eric Ward

Wow. How disturbing. And yes, we need to be having this conversation.

I find myself quoting Bayard [pronounced Buy-yard] Rustin a lot these days. He’s one of my Queer heroes from history, and there’s a chapter on him in my NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? Bayard was Black, and he was one of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. He’s the guy who organized the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave that famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Bayard was also openly Gay, and sidelined because of it.

Every chapter in my book starts off with a primary source quote, so we can hear these people from history in their own words. Bayard’s chapter starts with this quote from a 1986 speech:

“If we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all.” —Bayard Rustin

I think that’s so true, and so wise. And it’s fascinating to learn (and maybe to remember) that fighting Antisemitism is part of that. It’s part of fighting racism, and misogyny, and ableism, and homophobia, and transphobia. It’s all connected. We are all connected.

So let’s continue our efforts to eliminate injustice to all.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

PS – my thanks to my friend April Powers who shared this article on her excellent LinkedIn feed