Is America a racist nation?

[OuttaNowhereWregget]

OPINION

As antisemitism spikes in US, Presidents’ Day reminds us of our nation’s values
A Jew, George Washington proclaimed, would be able to ‘sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree … [with] none to make him afraid.’
By Leonard Saxe February 19, 2024

In 1790, President George Washington visited the Jewish community of Newport, R.I., and in his thank-you letter he assured them that the federal government would sanction neither bigotry nor persecution. A Jew, he proclaimed, would be able to “sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree … [with] none to make him afraid.” At a moment when anti-Jewish hatred has reappeared in American society with newfound ugliness, Presidents’ Day is a reminder of our country’s founding values.

These values have particular resonance for those of us concerned with the recent rise of antisemitic incidents on college campuses. There is fierce debate about where to draw the line between acts, including speech, which are hateful and harmful versus speech that should be protected. Jewish students are the current focus of this clash of values, but the issues are important for all of us, especially for members of other ethnic, racial, and religious groups.

Antisemitism is perhaps one of the world’s oldest and most persistent hatreds. Centuries of persecution and oppression culminated in the Nazi genocide that claimed 6 million Jewish lives. In the decades following World War II, the virus of antisemitism appeared to be dormant. In recent years, however, many classic antisemitic trope and conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the media and plans for world domination have reappeared with the word “Zionist” in place of “Jews.”

The antisemitism virus has survived for so long because it has been able to adapt to new situations. Its mutations make it harder to identify and more difficult to address. These mutations were on display during the eruption of protests that have taken place on many campuses since Hamas brutally attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and capturing more than 240.

The brutality of Oct. 7 was the worst expression of antisemitism since the Holocaust. However, many students on US college campuses did not seem to recognize it as such. Instead, some students, often at protests led by Students for Justice in Palestine, hailed Hamas fighters as individuals engaged in justified acts of resistance. Acts of terrorism and violations of international law were treated as legitimate political actions.

Several definitions are used to describe contemporary antisemitism. The most progressive one, developed and supported by a broad coalition of academics, is the “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.” Published in 2021, it was crafted to strengthen efforts to combat antisemitism by clarifying ambiguities present in earlier definitions of antisemitism and providing guidelines that could help ensure that an open debate about political issues concerning “Israel/Palestine” could take place without being framed as antisemitic.

The JDA notes that antisemitism “can be manifested in words, images and deeds,” and illustrated its principles by offering a set of statements about Israel that were identified as “on [their] face” antisemitic or not. Thus, for example, “Denying the right of Jews in the State of Israel to exist and flourish” was characterized as on its face antisemitic. At the same time, statements “giving full equality to all inhabitants ‘between the river and sea’ ” were not prima facie considered antisemitic. The authors of the JDA argued that the statements “should be read in the light of the others and always with a view to context.”

What is interesting about these examples from the JDA is that, after Oct. 7, they take on different meanings. In the context of the Hamas terrorist attacks, and the group’s own rhetoric, there seems no question that antisemitism was the driving force behind Hamas’s actions. The slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” in context of Hamas’s self-declared holy war against Zionists, is not a statement in support of full equality for Jews and Palestinians.

An empirical question is how the statement is viewed, in particular by Jewish students. My colleagues and I have been interviewing and surveying thousands of Jewish students on campuses since early November. Our recent study is an extension of work we have been doing for many years to understand the experiences of Jewish students on campus and the relationships between them and other student groups. What stands out about their experiences in the aftermath of the Hamas attack is how many perceive their campuses to be hostile to Jews and Israel. The picture is markedly different than a similar study we conducted in 2016.

Many of the recent respondents are concerned about their own safety. Virtually all are concerned about the lives of Israelis, and almost all of them share a concern about the lives of Palestinians. For most of our respondents, who are predominantly liberal, perceptions of hostility toward Jews and Israel are closely associated with concerns about antisemitism on their campus. In particular, the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which might have been considered by many as politically respectable rhetoric prior to Oct. 7, was widely perceived to be antisemitic, particularly by Jewish students who felt that their campuses were hostile to Jews and Israel.

Antisemitism on campus is not limited to speech. On many campuses, Jewish students have experienced acts of violence and harassment. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act obligates colleges and universities to ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to pursue their education. The same rules that protect students from race-based hate also protect Jewish students. Washington’s promise to a Jewish community at the birth of the nation has an expression in present-day law.

Colleges and universities should be sacred spaces for creating and sharing knowledge. But this mission is compromised in environments where students are uncomfortable expressing their religious, racial, or ethnic identities. Addressing the harm done by a hostile environment is not a zero-sum game: what one group gains, another loses. Concern for Jewish students, many of whom are deeply affected by the Hamas-Israel war, should not be an exception to how we treat students but a model for how universities carry out their ethical and legal obligations.

As we mark President Washington’s birthday and the founding of our constitutional democracy, it is a time to remember that liberty comes with a responsibility that we share together.

Leonard Saxe is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/19/ ... ntentQuery

[OuttaNowhereWregget]

‘Despicable’. Harvard student and faculty groups denounced over antisemitic cartoon.

By Mike Damiano Boston Globe Staff, February 20, 2024

Pro-Palestinian groups at Harvard University, including one comprised by faculty and staff, reignited the controversy over campus antisemitism over the long weekend when they posted an antisemitic cartoon on their social media accounts.

The cartoon, which dates to the 1960s and was condemned when it was first published, showed a hand inscribed with a Star of David and a dollar sign holding ropes around the necks of a Black man and an Arab man.

Interim Harvard president Alan Garber condemned it as “flagrantly antisemitic” in a message to the Harvard community Tuesday evening.

The cartoon was included in a social media post Sunday by two Harvard student activist groups — the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the African and African American Resistance Organization — as part of a graphic about historical ties between the Black civil rights movement and pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Additional student groups and a pro-Palestinian faculty and staff group later posted the graphic on their own accounts.

“The cartoon is despicably, inarguably antisemitic,” Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, wrote on social media Monday after a group called Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine posted the image online. “Is there no limit?”

The cartoon appears to have originated from a 1967 newsletter published by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a major player in the 1960s civil rights movement. According to a New York Times article at the time, the two men depicted with ropes around their necks are boxer Muhammad Ali and then-president of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser.

According to the Times article, the SNCC newsletter condemned what it described as atrocities committed by Zionists against Arabs. The Times quoted a then-director of the Anti-Defamation League saying the newsletter, which included the cartoon, “smacks very heavily of antisemitism.”

The graphic posted by the Harvard groups noted the “historical roots of solidarity” between the “Black liberation movements and Palestinian liberation.” It included the words, “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee likened Zionism to an imperial project. . .” beside an image of the cartoon.

A number of the Harvard organizations that posted the graphic, including PSC, AFRO, and the faculty group, later took it down. The faculty group apologized for posting it.

On a campus that has been riven by reports of resurgent antisemitism since Oct. 7 of last year, the posts provoked an uproar over the weekend.

University spokesperson Jason Newton called the social media posts “despicable.” Jeffrey Flier, a Harvard professor and former dean of Harvard Medical School, said in a social media post that there was “[n]o debate about this [cartoon] being antisemitic.” Harvard Chabad, a Jewish group, called it “Reprehensible. Bigoted. Hateful.”

“At a time when antisemitic incidents are at an all-time high and Holocaust denial is spreading both in the U.S. and abroad, Harvard faculty and students must understand and be held to account for the tremendous consequences of proliferating insidious tropes,” the Harvard Jewish Law Students Association said in a statement.

Newton said the matter is being referred to the Harvard College Administrative Board, which handles disciplinary proceedings for students and sanctioned student groups, such as the Palestine Solidarity Committee.

On Tuesday, Garber, who is Jewish, condemned the posts. “Perpetuating vile and hateful antisemitic tropes, or otherwise engaging in inflammatory rhetoric or sharing images that demean people on the basis of their identity, is precisely the opposite of what this moment demands of us,” he said in the message emailed to the Harvard community.

“The University will review the situation to better understand who was responsible for the posting and to determine what further steps are warranted,” he added.

The Palestine Solidarity Committee is the same group that published a statement on Oct. 7 last year — the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel — that plunged the university into turmoil after critics denounced it as justifying terrorism. “Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” the statement said. The group later said the statement was not a justification for violence against civilians, but rather sought to place the Hamas attack in the context of the long, violent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Monday afternoon, as the backlash mounted, the two student groups took down the original graphic and replaced it with a new one that did not include the offensive cartoon. In a caption accompanying the new post, the groups said they had “inadvertently includ[ed] an image that played upon antisemitic tropes” and that the cartoon “was not reflective of our values as organizations.”

“Antisemitism has no place in the movement of Palestinian liberation, and we wholeheartedly disavow it in all its forms,” the groups said.

The faculty group removed the post from its Instagram account and issued a statement. “It has came to our attention that a post featuring antiquated cartoons which used offensive antisemitic tropes was linked to our account,” the group said. “We apologize for the hurt that these images have caused and do not condone them in any way.”

As of Monday morning, the faculty group listed more than 100 signatories on its website under a statement describing the group’s goals. They included faculty and staff from Harvard’s law school, medical school, college, and school of public health.

One of the group’s leaders was Walter Johnson, a professor of history and African and African American Studies, who was, as of last week, also the faculty adviser to PSC. He has since resigned from both groups, according to messages seen by the Globe.

In a statement Tuesday, Johnson said, “I was surprised and saddened by the posting of the images, as I know many others were, but I am no longer in a position to speak on behalf of any organization.”

At some time on Sunday or Monday, the faculty group removed the names of all signatories from its website, according to archived versions of the site. A spokesperson for the group did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The social media posts were widely condemned over the weekend, including by critics from beyond Harvard’s walls. Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard alumnus who has led an activist campaign against Harvard over what he describes as runaway campus antisemitism, described the groups’ sharing of the cartoon as “grim” in a post on X, the social media platform.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce, a congressional committee investigating Harvard over antisemitism allegations, wrote on its X account: “This repugnant antisemitism should have no place in our society, much less on Harvard’s faculty.”

That congressional investigation entered a new phase on Friday when chairwoman Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said she was subpoenaing Harvard leaders, including interim president Garber. The subpoenas, reviewed by the Globe, would force Harvard to turn over a wide range of documents including disciplinary records, minutes of board meetings, and internal communications.

Foxx has contended Harvard has failed to create an environment for Jewish students free from discrimination and harassment. Separately, several Jewish Harvard students are suing the school over similar allegations.

Garber, who took over the presidency after former president Claudine Gay’s resignation last month, has convened two task forces to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia, which students say have gotten worse since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip.

Hilary Burns of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Mike Damiano can be reached at [email protected]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/20/ ... nt=event12

[Brooklyn]

WATCH: White Employee Calls Cops On Innocent Black Coworker, Falsely Accuses Him Of Theft


Sue them all!

[runrussellrun]

Autistic Jewish 17 year old has Swastika carved into his back. MAGA

A year later.....follow up. we TOLD you that this was fear porn......and a money grab. Suddenly, a lawsuit includes a "failed" IEP plan.

Guess the lawuit plaintiffs must have attended Lori Rogich's "seminar" on how to win a lawsuit against Clark County.

Oh yeah......and STILL no "suspects" You are a fear porn pervayorr.

A Jewish civil rights organization has filed a state complaint on behalf of a nonverbal autistic teen who allegedly suffered an antisemitic attack while at Clark High School.


The due process complaint, filed with the state’s Department of Education, alleged that the Clark County School District did not provide the student, who was a 17-year-old 12th-grader at the time, a safe school environment. It also alleged that the boy had made “minimal, if any, educational progress” despite attending CCSD’s autism program since preschool.

“This horrific act against a defenseless Jewish student is a stark reminder of the deeply rooted issue of antisemitism that persists in our society,” said Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project, a New York-based Jewish civil and human rights organization, in announcing the case Thursday. “Furthermore, the failure of the Clark County School District to conduct a proper investigation into this incident is evidence of the systemic apathy that exists toward Jews who are targeted by hate-crimes.”

“There is an appalling pattern of discriminatory conduct within the CCSD that cannot be tolerated any longer,” said Hillary Freeman, another of the student’s lawyers. “It is time for CCSD to step up and ensure that all students are safe and receiving equal access to their education.”

According to the complaint, a CCSD Police report and media reports at the time, the boy, who wears a yarmulke — a traditional head covering for observant Jewish men and boys — came home from school March 9 with a swastika scratched into his skin and his service dog’s bag broken and re-sewn.

The state complaint said the hate symbol was “physically carved into his back.”

Additionally, the complaint detailed some of the boy’s reading, writing and math abilities and an unsatisfactory new proposed individualized education plan, which is a federally mandated personalized educational plan for special education students.

Under federal law, special education students are entitled to a “free, appropriate public education.”

“Notably, the IEP proposed by the district for the 2023-24 school year did not include any goals that advance his academic goals, functional communication and/or behaviors. To the extent there are goals related to these areas, the ‘goal’ is just designed to maintain an otherwise achieved goal,” the complaint said.

“Due to the district’s failure to ensure his safety and teach him skills to communicate his needs, self-advocate, as well as many others, Petitioners requested that (the student) be placed on home instruction until an appropriate program could be identified,” it added.

The boy is now 18 and still receiving home instruction. The complaint said CCSD did not propose a full reevaluation of the boy’s needs this fall when revisiting his IEP, “but instead opted to rely upon information that was antiquated or from professionals who barely knew him. When questioned on this at the Eligibility Meeting, the district directed the parents to file a due process petition if they disagreed with the results of the assessments.”

The Office of Inclusive Education in the Nevada Department of Education handles dispute resolution if a parent or guardian believes a school has violated special education law or regulation. Corrective action can include compensatory services or monetary reimbursement.

“I am committed and will do whatever I can to help this student and this cause,” said Lori Rogich, a local attorney who is on the teen’s legal team. “I fought for the well-being and rights of children with special needs in the past and I will always fight against antisemitism in all its forms.”

A CCSD spokesman said the district did not comment on pending litigation.

The CCSD Police Department started investigating the alleged swastika attack on March 13 and closed it on March 31, according to a report the Sun received in a public records request.

The police report stated that the boy’s mother noticed fresh scratch marks on the boy’s back when she was bathing him on the evening of March 9. Because of the boy’s disability, he was unable to explain what happened.

The police report said that the boy’s mother emailed multiple people, including an assistant principal and teacher, about her concern. She also addressed the incident the next day when she went to Clark for a meeting, the report stated.

Police reviewed security camera footage from Clark and wrote that they “did not observe anyone making any contact with (the boy). No suspicious activity of any kind was observed concerning (the boy).”

The report also said a teacher and teacher’s assistant said the boy had no unusual issues that day, and the aide had been with him all day.

The investigating officer said the case should be closed “until new evidence or information can be obtained for further follow-up.”

[ardilla secreta]

Utah Women’s Basketball forced to move hotels at NCAA Tournament after ‘racial hate crimes.
It happened last Thursday night after the team arrived in the Coeur d’Alene area for the tournament in Spokane.

Green said the team, cheerleaders and members of the school band were walking to dinner when a truck approached the group, revved its engines before someone in the vehicle shouted the n-word.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? ... Everybody was in shock – our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Green told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that … I was just numb the entire night.”

When the group came back from dinner, something similar happened, this time with two trucks revving their engines. The n-word was directed at the group again.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/ ... SApp_Other

[Seacoaster(1)]

Utah Women’s Basketball forced to move hotels at NCAA Tournament after ‘racial hate crimes.
It happened last Thursday night after the team arrived in the Coeur d’Alene area for the tournament in Spokane.

Green said the team, cheerleaders and members of the school band were walking to dinner when a truck approached the group, revved its engines before someone in the vehicle shouted the n-word.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? ... Everybody was in shock – our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Green told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that … I was just numb the entire night.”

When the group came back from dinner, something similar happened, this time with two trucks revving their engines. The n-word was directed at the group again.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/ ... SApp_Other

Wonder where the permission structures for this behavior are coming from?

[Typical Lax Dad]

Utah Women’s Basketball forced to move hotels at NCAA Tournament after ‘racial hate crimes.
It happened last Thursday night after the team arrived in the Coeur d’Alene area for the tournament in Spokane.

Green said the team, cheerleaders and members of the school band were walking to dinner when a truck approached the group, revved its engines before someone in the vehicle shouted the n-word.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? ... Everybody was in shock – our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Green told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that … I was just numb the entire night.”

When the group came back from dinner, something similar happened, this time with two trucks revving their engines. The n-word was directed at the group again.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/ ... SApp_Other

Wonder where the permission structures for this behavior are coming from?

The coach is virtue signaling.

[ardilla secreta]

Utah Women’s Basketball forced to move hotels at NCAA Tournament after ‘racial hate crimes.
It happened last Thursday night after the team arrived in the Coeur d’Alene area for the tournament in Spokane.

Green said the team, cheerleaders and members of the school band were walking to dinner when a truck approached the group, revved its engines before someone in the vehicle shouted the n-word.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? ... Everybody was in shock – our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Green told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that … I was just numb the entire night.”

When the group came back from dinner, something similar happened, this time with two trucks revving their engines. The n-word was directed at the group again.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/ ... SApp_Other

Wonder where the permission structures for this behavior are coming from?

Mark Fuhrman?

[Seacoaster(1)]

Utah Women’s Basketball forced to move hotels at NCAA Tournament after ‘racial hate crimes.
It happened last Thursday night after the team arrived in the Coeur d’Alene area for the tournament in Spokane.

Green said the team, cheerleaders and members of the school band were walking to dinner when a truck approached the group, revved its engines before someone in the vehicle shouted the n-word.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? ... Everybody was in shock – our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Green told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that … I was just numb the entire night.”

When the group came back from dinner, something similar happened, this time with two trucks revving their engines. The n-word was directed at the group again.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/ ... SApp_Other

Wonder where the permission structures for this behavior are coming from?

Mark Fuhrman?

If the glove fits….