You Can’t Claim To Be An Anti-racist If You Don't Find Antisemitism Unacceptable.

In the last few days British grime artist Wiley posted a series of antisemitic messages on Twitter and Instagram - among his comments he said “I don’t care about Hitler",  and “There are 2 sets of people who nobody has really wanted to challenge #Jewish & #KKK".  In response, Twitter deleted several of his tweets and banned him for 7 days from posting on the platform stating he violated the platform’s rules.  His management has since dropped him and the police have opened an investigation. 

Sadly, his comments have opened the door to many antisemitic comments on social media with some people brushing them off as “no big deal” because of ‘jewish privilege’ and the idea that Jews are all powerful and therefore cannot be victims of discrimination.

I would like to make one thing clear - Antisemitism is a form of Racism. 

The ideas that Jews own all the money in the world, rule everything and are untouchable are all antisemitic and racist ideas that stem from ignorance. 

These type of untrue and offensive generalisations are often used to provoke fear of minority groups that then translate into hate when in fact - not all jews are rich, just like not all black people are criminals and not all gay people have aids.

But to address some of the claims:

When it comes to who actually rules the world it depends on how you assess it. If money is the key factor then you need to consider who the world's five richest people (owning over 50% of the worlds' wealth) are: Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Bernard Arno, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison. When trying to find what they have in common I found this: Non of these people are Jewish, ALL OF THEM ARE MEN and four of them are American. If you expand the list to eight, then it will also include Amancio Ortega, Mark Zackerberg and Jim Walton - meaning one Jew, still ALL MEN and six out of the eight American.

If you reject the idea that a group of rich people rule the world and believe it's more about countries, please consider that the most powerful countries in the world are: the United States, Russia, China, Germany and the United Kingdom. The United States has the world’s largest economy, with a GDP of $19.4 trillion and the largest military budget of $610 billion. And the US defence spending is higher than the next seven largest defence spenders (China, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom) combined. 

And if politics is how you want to go, well then I honestly can't cover all of it, but let's just say that if the world's most powerful nation from which 6 out of the 8 most richest people in the world come from has never had a Jewish president - well that pretty much says it all.

All of the above are Antisemitic canards - sensational reports and fabrications made against Jews, also known as - Jewish conspiracy theories, the worst one being the denial of the Holocaust.

Oh, and let's not forget that the same people who think jews are mastermind puppeteers who are after world domination also think they are vermin. Which is it then? Evil geniuses with nothing but money in their pockets or RATS? Can't be both.  

ANYWAY...

Recently #jewishprivilege was trending on Twitter. The idea that Jews are privileged because of their 'jewishness' is also antisemitic because it leans on the above untrue notions that Jews rule the world. 'Jewish privilege' has been compared to 'white privilege' (which is very much a real thing) but declared as even worse.

Let's make a few things clear:

1) White jews enjoy privileges due to their 'whiteness', NOT their 'jewishness'. 

2) Not all Jews are white - some are black and many of them are considered 'people of colour' in the USA because of their middle eastern heritage. 

3) And this is the most interesting point - right wing extremists do not consider Jews to be pure white at all, regardless of the colour of their skin. In fact, some would say that being white has little to do with the colour of your skin and more to do with your bloodline. In the nineteenth century for example, the idea that Jews belonged to a different people than the Germans caught on. Even Jews who had converted to Christianity were still seen as 'different' because of their bloodline. Hitler classified Jews as ‘non Germans' despite the fact Jews had a history of living in Germany since 500 AD. The examples are endless.

My point is - when extremist white supremacists talk about Jewish privilege, they do it to say that Jews benefit from some imaginary advantage they have that is denied to people who are not jewish. It's simply a gross lie that is used to justify hate. 

The fact is that racists do not discriminate in their racism. 'Once a bigot, always a bigot' and those who hate the black community for example most likely also hate Jews, gays, Muslims and other minority groups. And make no mistake - Jews ARE a minority both in numbers (representing 0.18% of the world compared to 29% Christians and 24% muslims) but also as a culture and an ethnic group. The history of Jewish persecution is long and I won't bore you with it but it goes all the way back to the Bible and the fact that some Jews have succeeded and held positions of power and wealth in the world despite that history, is the key reason why some people brush off antisemitism with the casual "but it's jews, they're rich, it's fine".

Well it's not fine. 

You cannot claim to be an anti-racist if you see Jews as an all-powerful group who control the world and if you don't find antisemitism unacceptable. 

ALL forms of prejudice and discrimination are wrong.

And here is a little thing to think about before you go - while minority groups fight amongst themselves, ask yourselves who benefits from it the most?