As I noted in a post recently,
for campus “conservatives” so-called “freedom of speech” issues revolve almost
exclusively around their “freedom” to either publicly express views—or invite
controversial speakers who do it for them—that are racially or “ethnically”
divisive. In fact, campus “conservatism”—and “conservatism” as defined generally
by Fox News—is wholly wrapped-up in white nationalism and personal petty
hatreds, the latter of which more than a few minorities are also guilty of,
against their own interests. Stephen
Miller—who as a student at Duke University rubbed shoulders with neo-Nazi
Richard Spencer—has taken his “education” to another, more sinister level in the
Trump administration.
Anti-Semitic activities, along
with hate crimes generally, have been on the rise since Trump was elected
president, since many white nationalists blame Jews for providing the “framework”
for and being the “wizard” behind the curtains manipulating “radical” changes
that are “transforming” the country into an unrecognizable multicultural “state,”
in which white people are powerless to shape in accordance to their privileges
and entitlements. But this belief has never had any basis in reality—especially
when you take into consideration Donald Trump’s apparent “love” of Jewish
people and what they can do for him—either as “fixers” or cooking his financial
books for him; Trump has stated that he only trusts “Jews” to “count his money,”
and presumably that means concocting those
financial records he is so desperately trying to shield from prying eyes.
And now with his Jewish son-in-law
Jared Kushner and Jewish-convert daughter Ivanka standing behind him, Trump put
his juvenile scrawl of a signature on an executive order that bans on college
campuses anything that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance has defined as anti-Semitic:
Antisemitism
is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.
Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward
Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community
institutions and religious facilities. In addition, such manifestations could also
target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. Antisemitism
frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used
to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing,
visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative
character traits.
This can include “Making
mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews
as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not
exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling
the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”
Of course, Trump and Stephen Miller
engage in such rhetoric without apparent self-consciousness in regard to
Hispanics and other peoples from what they call “shithole” countries. Miller,
as well all know, is Jewish. You know, I don’t know any people of the Jewish persuasion
personally, and I’m sure if I encountered one on the street in Seattle they’d
would treat me as much as a non-human entity as any other Caucasian, Chinese or
Indian type (save of course as a “likely” car prowler they need to “watch out”
for). The only person of Jewish extraction that I know I have encountered close-up
was a photography instructor in college, who in class often referred to his
Jewishness as if it was some badge of superiority; he struck me as arrogant and
self-satisfied, and he took any opportunity to humiliate students he looked
down on as “inferior.” That was my impression at the time, and I still think
that was the case.
One of the problems with Trump’s
executive order is that it potentially “criminalizes” and penalizes colleges
and universities for allowing or not addressing what the IHRA characterizes as “anti-Semitic”
speech, such as criticism of Israeli policies or characterizing them in “malicious”
terms. Yet we have an arrogant, self-satisfied man in the White House of Jewish
extraction who is plainly racist and a white nationalist, and according to
Trump, any criticism of him is “anti-Semitic” regardless of the fact that any
references to his religion at all is due to the irony of this man’s embrace of
fascism in this country.
It is of course wrong to judge a
whole group of people on the crimes of the few (just as it is wrong to
characterize Hispanics as a group as being “rapists” and “violent criminals” as
Trump and Miller do), and obviously the history of civil rights in this country
has seen many Jews taking a stand against racial prejudice, and a few even
being murdered in the fight. But the Washington
Post story on Trump’s executive order included a photograph of a man
wearing a “MAGA” skullcap, and today the MAGA cap is primarily identified with
white nationalism and “America First” fascism. That some deny this definition doesn’t
make it any less so; it simply is. And as we have seen with Miller’s emails to
Breitbart, he is what he has been since he was a high school student: a man who
is consumed with race and anti-immigrant hate. And he is Jewish. And as long as he is in the White House, he
controls the fate of millions of people who he hates.
We should be clear what Trump’s
executive order is really about: it is a political ploy to attract Jews to his
reelection “camp.” The Post story
tells us that “Liberal Jewish groups raised concerns. Many expressed alarm
about including Jews in Title VI, which addresses discrimination based on race
and nationality but not religious discrimination. They said they worried that
the administration seemed to be classifying Judaism as a race or nationality,
despite the fact that Jews have a variety of racial backgrounds and do not come
from a single country or region.” There was thus concerns about future “blowback,”
presumably meaning the kind that racial and ethnic minorities have been
confronted with by anti-affirmative action referendums and lawsuits, and by
Republican administrations, both state and federal, who play to white grievance.
Jewish people (like Italian-Americans) do not like themselves lumped-in with
other racial and immigrant groups, and see themselves as a separate entity
victimized in a historically “separate” way from other groups. Being too closely
“identified” with “inferior” groups who in this country have been the victims
of far more significant discrimination historically (blacks and Hispanics, for
example) has had the derogatory “I’m not one of them” effect on some people, which persuades them to rationalize a closer
relationship with those who can be characterized as white nationalist and
racist.
If we presume, however, that most
Jews are “liberal”—or at least are opposed to any form of racial or religious
prejudice on principle—then what do they have to gain from accepting “favors”
from Trump and aligning themselves with him? Clearly he sees them as fellow
white people who are “deserving” of the same consideration of any other whites
in the white nationalist world; Miller has certainly “proven” himself in that
regard. But we are still talking about the same man who had nothing to say when
a white nationalist traveled to El Paso to personally depopulate the country of
as many Hispanics as he could—in fact Trump has only continued to paint them in
ugly stereotypical terms—and we know after Charlottesville that Trump sees no
difference between neo-Nazis and anyone opposed to them, in fact views the
latter as being the “instigators” of racial issues who won’t allow “good”
people, white like himself, to freely spout
white grievance rhetoric.
Jewish people who support Trump
or take “favors” from him risk alienating people who would otherwise see them
as “friends” in the fight against bigotry in general terms, and instead see
them as taking advantage of their “special victim” status—much as white gender
activists do—to give themselves advantages above what they already possess as
being white in this country. Jews are already seen in some quarters as using
past history to make themselves more “oppressed” in this country than those who
have suffered continuing racial and “ethnic” prejudice on the ground level, not
merely as an ideological concept.
The bottom line is that Trump’s
executive order does nothing to stop neo-Nazi types from sneaking around
spraying swastikas on walls or doors, or leaving anonymous anti-Semitic
leaflets around campus. What it does do is what Trump is accusing people of who
criticize what Miller is and what he is doing—being “anti-Semitic.” What Trump
is suggesting in his executive order is that no Jew can be criticized for being
racist, white nationalist or xenophobic without being deemed “anti-Semitic.” There is no quicker way to lose one’s credibility
as a “victim” by joining hands with the victimizer to victimize others.
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