Running racism in America thread

If they had turned their fire hoses on her, that would have been appropriate retribution for her Trumpism/racism given history.

 

Accidentally?

 

The wording of the tweet is a bit too ... commercial'y ... up there with Pussy Cow.

 

Candace Owens and Marc Lamont Hill (professor of media studies at Temple) had this discussion a few weeks ago.

 

ViacomCBS drops Nick Cannon, cites 'anti-Semitic' comments

The news peg here is ViacomCBS cutting ties with Nick Cannon, but the reason is what troubles me. On his podcast, Cannon argued that black people are the true Hebrews and Jewish people stole their identity. He also claimed that people with out enough melanin in their skin are lesser beings than those who do have a sufficient amount. He was basically saying that this causes white people, Jews included, to act out of fear and commit violent acts to survive.

This is close to the idiot conspiracy theories Stephen Jackson was talking about. It also ties into the quote that DeSean Jackson shared, the one he seemingly didn't understand. Maybe it is just because Cannon is a relatively minor celebrity, but once again, these despicable comments about Jewish people don't get much attention.

Jamele Hill wrote a column for The Atlantic in response to DeSean Jackson's social media posts, referring to her own past of making an offensive comment related to Jewish people. She refers to the issue as a cultural blind spot for African Americans.

In 2008, I was a general columnist for ESPN.com, covering the NBA Finals series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. Heading into Game 5, I wrote a piece about how it saddened me, as a lifelong Detroit Pistons fan, to see that the Celtics were no longer as widely hated as they had once been. Trying to be funny and whimsical, I drew upon my memories of the Pistons having to beat the Celtics before winning their first NBA championship in 1989. I ended up writing, “Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim.”

More than a decade later, I still cringe when I think about it. Not only had I severely insulted the Celtics’ fan base, but I had made a joke about the Nazi leader who orchestrated the murder of 6 million Jewish people. I was, of course, aware of the Holocaust, but I had given little thought to the feelings of the Jewish community because, frankly, it wasn’t my own. When others pointed out the insensitivity of my statement, I was mortified. I apologized and wrote an entire column asking for forgiveness. ESPN suspended me for a week, a punishment that I deserved.

Like Jackson, I am Black. And had anyone made a remark trivializing slavery, I would have been incensed. I learned that just because I’m aware of the destruction caused by racism, that doesn’t mean I’m automatically sensitive to other forms of racism, or in this case, anti-Semitism. Black people, too, are capable of being culturally arrogant.

Hill went on to claim that black people have a "cultural blind spot" when it comes to Jews. She referred lyrics in a song by Jay-Z and LeBron James sharing another rapper's lyric as other cases of black people making or sharing insensitive comments about Jews.

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. 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's column was enlightening to me. I have always struggled to understand the bigotry and misunderstanding I see from both sides when it comes to African Americans and Jews. Maybe some of it comes from the nonsense theories like what we have heard from Jackson and Cannon. Maybe part of it is because Jewish people may have some serious horror in our past and we still face bigotry, but our experience in this country is nothing like that of African Americans. We haven't faced the same economic disadvantage and, as I've been told many times, our faith isn't nearly as easy to see as a different skin color. We have been and still are marginalized in some ways, but we don't have to deal with the same systemic racism as African Americans.

To be clear, those cultural blind spots exist on both sides. Of course, it isn't all Jews or all African Americans, but it is enough to be an issue and it shouldn't be. We should know better than to treat others badly in the way we have been treated badly. To be completely honest, my family didn't really teach me to treat people who are different from me with respect. There were times my father was capable of the same sort of casual racism that Hill wrote about. He said things that still make me cringe when I think of them and he has been gone for 20 years. My older brother was worse. I think the only reason I never saw him with a Confederate flag is that despite living in South Carolina for the last 20-plus years of his life, he still thought of Pittsburgh as home. The thing is, it wasn't really born out of hate. One of my father's dearest friends when I was growing up was a black man. I'm not talking about one of those "I've got black friends!" deals. He genuinely loved the guy. C.J. and my father were family to one another. I never saw my father treat an African American with anything but decency, yet he would still talk about disturbing stereotypes and use offensive language. I think this is the type of cultural blind spot Hill wrote about. My mother didn't talk like that, but she didn't correct it or tell me any different. She set a better example for me, but didn't really talk about it much.

My family didn't teach me that racism and other forms of bigotry are bad. I learned those lessons on my own. I learned all I ever want to learn about bigotry as a very young Jewish kid spending three years in Louisiana. I was threatened by another student with a razor, who said, "I'm going to cut you with this, Jew boy." He didn't carry out his threat, but the unthinking hatred made an impression on me. I was assaulted by groups of classmates at school more than once. Each time, teachers and administration either turned a blind eye or blamed me, questioning why it was always me in the middle of the violence. I didn't understand why until I was a little older. I carried around a good bit of anger over that for long time, but those incidents and other less-dramatic ones taught me about the ugliness and senselessness of bigotry. They are the reason I abhor racism and all forms of bigotry. Those people showed me what I didn't want to be, because I didn't want to ever make anyone else feel the way they made me feel. It wasn't about the pain or fear of violence. It was about he unfairness of it all.

I am very proud that I really didn't have to work hard at all to get my daughter to understand all this. She grew up with diversity all around her. She has faced some bigotry for being Jewish, though she often kept it from us. In elementary school, she had classmates who would constantly throw coins at her, making it clear it was a reference to Jewish stereotypes. It was more subtle things than what I faced, but still upsetting. She didn't let that deter her from treating others with respect and kindness regardless of their differences. She really just sees other people and she is deeply troubled by bigotry toward others. I like to think I played a small part in that, but I also lucked out in having a good kid.

I wish I knew a good answer to the problem Hill wrote about. Maybe it is just raising one good kid at a time. Maybe it is adults trying just a little harder to see that we should all be motivated to do better by the painful moments of our pasts and even the ones we face today.

Sorry for rambling. I'm just trying to wrap my head around something. At the same time, I'm laughing at myself for allowing Nick Cannon to send me off on a philosophical tangent.

 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a piece for the Hollywood Reporter calling out apathy toward the anti-Jewish comments and social media posts of celebrities.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over Anti-Semitism in Sports and Hollywood?

 

I just heard more of what Nick Cannon said. He claimed that "melanin comes with compassion" as he was saying that those without it are lesser beings. WTF?

Also, he is demanding an apology from ViacomCBS as well as full ownership of the "Wild'n Out" brand. I imagine the contracts he signed don't allow him to keep that after being fired.

Nick Cannon Demands Full Ownership of ‘Wild ‘N Out,’ Says ViacomCBS on ‘Wrong Side of History’

 

Since the first four minutes are just more of her own self-victimization rolling into a recap of her "George Floyd was a ghetto thug who needed killin" hot take, I didn't feel like watching the next 1:13:00.

 

It was a good back and forth.

 

Moron.