Bigotry, Hate and Fear

There’s been a lot of news about freshman congresswoman Ilhan Omar and her possibly overheated comments. I don’t know whether she is anti-Semite or not or whether she is moving the Democratic Party toward Corbynism. I’m actually kind of clueless about anti-Semitism, despite reading a lot of books about World War II and the Nazis. For starters, I have never heard of the “Benjamins” and I didn’t realize that declaring Jews having allegiance to foreign countries was a standard anti-Semite trope. I do know about the George Soros, the “ruling of the world”, and the moneymen stereotypes, but I am otherwise very ignorant.

I wonder if Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, being an immigrant turned citizen from Kenya, is similarly ignorant because she grew up somewhere else. Maybe in Kenya, those were the stereotypes bandied about there. I grew up here and I’m still ignorant. So maybe she could be just ignorant. Or she could really be anti-Semitic.

I do think there is a lot of noise about anti-Semitism, racial bigotry and misogyny, all due to one person’s ascension to the Presidency. Coming down an elevator saying that all Mexicans are coming in are bringing in crimes and drugs is a gross type of prejudice. We’re just adding the hate of the Latinos to the hate of the Jews and blacks. And his ascension to the Presidency has allowed the alt-right and white supremacists to feel more comfortable attacking the vulnerable, the Jews, the blacks, the Muslims, the Hispanics and anyone else. Hate crimes have been rising the last two years. And the Trump voters have said that they like it that he says what no one else will say. They don’t say exactly what it is he is saying that attracts them so I’m left to assume it is the politically incorrect racist and bigoted things.

But we should be able to talk about things that Israel is doing that may be wrong and inhumane without being accused of anti-Semitisms. Yes, the horror of the Holocaust is not too far behind in the past and we should be wary of hate statements, but that does not mean we ignore every inhumane or unethical things they do. I’m not an expert on the Middle East situation but it would appear that they should have empathy for the Palestinians’ situation based upon their own Holocaust experience. I read that the Palestinians are locked in their land with very little food and jobs and their situation is getting desperate while the extremist Jews move into their land. You would think the Israelis would have some sympathy for the Palestinians and not use draconian measures such as turning military weapons on unarmed protesters. Surely, there is a better way?

So we should be able to have a discussion, a critique of how the Israelis are handling the Palestinians. We should be able to call them out, not be shut down. The trick is how to critique without inflammatory words that apparently Ilhan Omar is using and without seeming to side with neo-Nazis or white supremacists.

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As an aside…The other thing I’m reading is that a lot of high school students seem to be displaying Nazi symbols like the Hitler salute (done during a photo shoot) or the swastika symbol (using cups during a party and as a symbol in one’s username). I will say these kids are ignorant of the harm they are promoting but they are getting this from somewhere. They’ve seen this somewhere; it just doesn’t come out of the blue.

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In college, I was given a writing assignment in a French class using specific words from the book. The words were a rather boring bunch but there was a set of words that led me to an idea. But there was a problem: the idea was rather derogatory and prejudicial to a certain group of people. The idea felt like it was a common thought about those people at the time (I’m trying to be very cryptic here) but I also wondered if I was being prejudicial. It was disturbing how strongly that idea resonated with me. I spent a week trying to figure out how to use those words without being mean to this group of people and still have an interesting paper. I finally hit upon a better solution that was way more interesting without being hurtful.

I say this not to illustrate I’m some wonderful person who would never think of anything mean about a group of people. I say it to show I might inadvertently act racist or bigoted without even knowing it. This is an illustration showing I have picked up some ideas that may be prejudicial and I happened to be self-aware enough at that time to try to find another interesting idea. But I’m sure it is very easy to slip into prejudicial thought, especially if you grew up in those times or places where you did not have to be careful about politically incorrect thoughts.

And that is probably where Ilhan Omar is probably coming from: she might simply be unaware.