In 1971, sometime near my ninth birthday, I was approached on Madison Avenue between 74th and 75th street by a white man raising money for the defense of Angela Davis. The man explained to me that Angela, a black revolutionary, had been arrested solely because she was black, and that if enough money was not raised, she would surely be executed in the California gas chamber.
This post is deeply depressing....but extremely important. Baldwin was (and is) a hero of mine, and I often taught his wonderful essay on whiteness as something one becomes rather than is born to by virtue of skin color. In that essay, he argues that Jews became “white” when they came to America (as did the Irish.) I thought it a bold anticipation of ideas that were yet to be widely held, regarding the historical construction of race. I didn’t know about the pieces you examine here, perhaps because I didn’t want to know about them. I loved Baldwin, and it would have crushed me to think of him as holding this kind of blind, mistaken view of Jews. It crushes me now...perhaps especially now, when these writings can be touted as support for the destructive “progressivism” among young leftists today. Upsetting. But I needed to know, and I thank you for writing about it.
David, I'm with you in questioning the seemingly reflexive nature of some protests, or the apparent lack of nuance in some forms of activism. However, I'm really struggling with your logic near the end, which feels like it leans toward a different form of confirmation bias. More particularly, it is the turn from "a clarion call to oppose oppression" to the repetition of "hate" in the following paragraph, most notably in this sentence: "When it comes to protesting oppression, perhaps the muscle memory is to hate first, ask questions later." I think it's a mistake to equate protest or dissent with hate, as your closing seems to do.
Is there evidence that people are marching "in hatred of Israel"? Maybe some, but I think most are marching against relentless bombing of a civilian population that cannot escape, by an Israeli government that has stated openly that it wants to annihilitate that population.
The acid test is always this: if the roles were reversed and it was the Israelis who were in the position of the Palestinians and being bombed day after day week after week, with all of the infrastructure of their world (homes, hospitals, schools, houses of worship, etc.) basically annihilated, and people were marching against that, would you interpret it as hatred?
Btw, you should have been upset with your parents. You did a compassionate and heartfelt thing supporting Angela Davis. But then I think most white parents would have reacted that way in that time period (since I'm close in age to you).
"Angela Davis was on trial for the procurement of guns used in a murderous exchange between black revolutionaries and the police. She was exonerated."
It may seem extravagant, but I'm going to credit you with .000001 percent of that win. It was doubtless also an important moment for you gaining intellectual and emotional independence of your parents.
David, I take issue with your footnote #7. Specifically, I take issue with the expurgation. For years, many who were diagnosed with cancer (and their families and friends) referred to the disease as the C-word. Somehow, it seemed to them, saying cancer was a terrible thing. But we should not be afraid of words and here I draw the distinction between the use and mention of words. I might use the word fat in a sentence (just did), but that is a mention. It is not the same as calling someone fat. I would not want someone to call me a kike, but I am not disturbed by its mention in a discussion about words. If I am quoting someone, I think I ought not be afraid to mention the word within quotation marks.
I realize many do not feel the same way as I do, and I was once asked not to repeat the very word to which you referred on another Substack, but I strongly feel that, as with c-word, we give the word even more power over our thinking if we are afraid to mention it. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, I made a point to say "I have cancer." It was my act of defiance. I would not let the word frighten me. I would not give it that power. I don't disagree that we should not USE the word in question, for all its horrific and ugly history. Still, it is a word and we should not be afraid to mention it. When I say we, I mean everyone.
There has been a strain of antisemitism within the Black liberationist movement since the late 1960’s. It by no means took over the entire movement but it was there. While Baldwin lived in France not the US he was apparently influenced by it.
Jews were thrown out of the civil rights movement by radical Blacks in the late 1960’s. In my mind, that was the beginning of the end of a true civil rights movement which just morphed into a bunch of riots. Economic improvement ended. Busing was enforced but hated.
Whether you believe it to be for the better or the worse, that is not the case in many of the circles within our culture. In those circles, the utterance of certain words, despite the context of that utterance, is considered to be unacceptable - which is the point I had hoped to make - words offensive to Jews should be as forbidden as any of the others - yet in many places those words are not only tolerated, they are celebrated.
We are all victims of our preconceptions, and a titanic intellect like Baldwin is no exception. I remember how many Jewish intellectuals were devastated by Baldwin's critique, which is so rife with half-truths as to be embarrassing. Jack Greenberg did not participate in Brown v Board to assuage his conscience, nor did Andrew Goodman or Mickey Schwerner go to Mississippi for that reason. I did my share of protesting and, haha, I did not have all that much conscience to assuage. And to equate the Warsaw ghetto with Black protest here is simply ludicrous. The real lesson is never to anoint anyone as a unquestioned authority or moral paradigm, but rather to subject every argument, every point of view to critical analysis regardless of the source. I used to teach that the most important arguments to critique were those that you agreed with. That goes for people as well.
I stopped reading authors, black or white, who were/are known anti semites. From Hemingway to Maya Angelou. The list is long. Sometimes I’d rather remain blissfully unaware of their hatred so I could enjoy a good book.
I wonder what Baldwin would have felt about January 6? What he reaction he might have been to the U.S. refusing Jewish refugees sanctuary during WW II as they were thought to be a threat to "national security"?
I'm not nor have ever been anti-semitic. Nor have I ever been racist. I'm not a Christian, nor anything really. My parents made sure that this child of the 1950's grew to be a fair and equatable person.
I'm a naive Pollyanna who believes everyone of any race, colour or creed should be valued and protected by all of us - a moral duty to hold onto like a life raft in a world gone mad.
I found the post, despite its truths, to be so unsettling and many of the comments even more so. That's the problem with being a Pollyanna - totally unrealistic.
And now, a view from an old man who is neither black nor a Jew.
I really don't mean to disrespect the tragic histories of either group, but neither do I wish to be part of the woke victim tripping history lessons which are currently so popular across the culture. Before readers start throwing the rotten fruit, perhaps they might pause a minute to consider the reasoning behind that statement.
The history lessons aren't bad, in fact I would agree they are essential, especially for young people. But we should understand the price tag. Every minute we spend on the victim tripping history lessons is a minute we don't spend focused on practical solutions to real world problems that are happening today. And so without further ado, let's proceed directly to that...
PROPOSAL: What if America offered fully free education at every level to blacks and native Americans? By "fully free" I mean tuition, books, room and board, every expense which is needed to advance one's education. This plan would continue until such time as the wealth gap between whites and these minorities is erased, a specific goal line which can be measured with data.
I've been pushing this idea for years, and it never goes anywhere. Here's why.
Everyone appears to be hopelessly distracted by the blame game victim tripping history lessons quest for moral superiority and woke validation of their political correctness. I don't mean this blog, or Substack as a whole, but nearly the entire culture. That is, our discussion of such topics is typically all about us, instead of those we could assist with specific, bold, plans of action.
Could my proposal be improved? Of course! But that won't happen. What will happen instead is that maybe a few readers will post why my proposal is wrong, bad, will never work, and why as an old white man who is not a Jew I have no right to speak etc etc.
And then discussion of specific, bold, plans of action will be discarded, and we'll head straight back to the blame game victim tripping history lessons.
Ok, my turn is up. I've put on the plastic rain suit and am ready to receive the rotten fruit. Fire when ready!
This post is deeply depressing....but extremely important. Baldwin was (and is) a hero of mine, and I often taught his wonderful essay on whiteness as something one becomes rather than is born to by virtue of skin color. In that essay, he argues that Jews became “white” when they came to America (as did the Irish.) I thought it a bold anticipation of ideas that were yet to be widely held, regarding the historical construction of race. I didn’t know about the pieces you examine here, perhaps because I didn’t want to know about them. I loved Baldwin, and it would have crushed me to think of him as holding this kind of blind, mistaken view of Jews. It crushes me now...perhaps especially now, when these writings can be touted as support for the destructive “progressivism” among young leftists today. Upsetting. But I needed to know, and I thank you for writing about it.
David, I'm with you in questioning the seemingly reflexive nature of some protests, or the apparent lack of nuance in some forms of activism. However, I'm really struggling with your logic near the end, which feels like it leans toward a different form of confirmation bias. More particularly, it is the turn from "a clarion call to oppose oppression" to the repetition of "hate" in the following paragraph, most notably in this sentence: "When it comes to protesting oppression, perhaps the muscle memory is to hate first, ask questions later." I think it's a mistake to equate protest or dissent with hate, as your closing seems to do.
Is there evidence that people are marching "in hatred of Israel"? Maybe some, but I think most are marching against relentless bombing of a civilian population that cannot escape, by an Israeli government that has stated openly that it wants to annihilitate that population.
The acid test is always this: if the roles were reversed and it was the Israelis who were in the position of the Palestinians and being bombed day after day week after week, with all of the infrastructure of their world (homes, hospitals, schools, houses of worship, etc.) basically annihilated, and people were marching against that, would you interpret it as hatred?
Btw, you should have been upset with your parents. You did a compassionate and heartfelt thing supporting Angela Davis. But then I think most white parents would have reacted that way in that time period (since I'm close in age to you).
This is for me a very enlightening, informative, sad article David.
There is still the question of what is the socially acceptable path for one underneath the boot?
"Angela Davis was on trial for the procurement of guns used in a murderous exchange between black revolutionaries and the police. She was exonerated."
It may seem extravagant, but I'm going to credit you with .000001 percent of that win. It was doubtless also an important moment for you gaining intellectual and emotional independence of your parents.
A thoughtful piece. Thank you.
Congratulations. Loved this piece. I wonder if Baldwin hated straight people for his oppression as a gay man.
I never liked him because somehow I was aware of his Jew hatred. I’m not sure how. As for Angela Davis, she’s still alive and quite despicable.
David, I take issue with your footnote #7. Specifically, I take issue with the expurgation. For years, many who were diagnosed with cancer (and their families and friends) referred to the disease as the C-word. Somehow, it seemed to them, saying cancer was a terrible thing. But we should not be afraid of words and here I draw the distinction between the use and mention of words. I might use the word fat in a sentence (just did), but that is a mention. It is not the same as calling someone fat. I would not want someone to call me a kike, but I am not disturbed by its mention in a discussion about words. If I am quoting someone, I think I ought not be afraid to mention the word within quotation marks.
I realize many do not feel the same way as I do, and I was once asked not to repeat the very word to which you referred on another Substack, but I strongly feel that, as with c-word, we give the word even more power over our thinking if we are afraid to mention it. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, I made a point to say "I have cancer." It was my act of defiance. I would not let the word frighten me. I would not give it that power. I don't disagree that we should not USE the word in question, for all its horrific and ugly history. Still, it is a word and we should not be afraid to mention it. When I say we, I mean everyone.
There has been a strain of antisemitism within the Black liberationist movement since the late 1960’s. It by no means took over the entire movement but it was there. While Baldwin lived in France not the US he was apparently influenced by it.
Jews were thrown out of the civil rights movement by radical Blacks in the late 1960’s. In my mind, that was the beginning of the end of a true civil rights movement which just morphed into a bunch of riots. Economic improvement ended. Busing was enforced but hated.
Whether you believe it to be for the better or the worse, that is not the case in many of the circles within our culture. In those circles, the utterance of certain words, despite the context of that utterance, is considered to be unacceptable - which is the point I had hoped to make - words offensive to Jews should be as forbidden as any of the others - yet in many places those words are not only tolerated, they are celebrated.
We are all victims of our preconceptions, and a titanic intellect like Baldwin is no exception. I remember how many Jewish intellectuals were devastated by Baldwin's critique, which is so rife with half-truths as to be embarrassing. Jack Greenberg did not participate in Brown v Board to assuage his conscience, nor did Andrew Goodman or Mickey Schwerner go to Mississippi for that reason. I did my share of protesting and, haha, I did not have all that much conscience to assuage. And to equate the Warsaw ghetto with Black protest here is simply ludicrous. The real lesson is never to anoint anyone as a unquestioned authority or moral paradigm, but rather to subject every argument, every point of view to critical analysis regardless of the source. I used to teach that the most important arguments to critique were those that you agreed with. That goes for people as well.
I stopped reading authors, black or white, who were/are known anti semites. From Hemingway to Maya Angelou. The list is long. Sometimes I’d rather remain blissfully unaware of their hatred so I could enjoy a good book.
Very thought provoking article.
I wonder what Baldwin would have felt about January 6? What he reaction he might have been to the U.S. refusing Jewish refugees sanctuary during WW II as they were thought to be a threat to "national security"?
I'm not nor have ever been anti-semitic. Nor have I ever been racist. I'm not a Christian, nor anything really. My parents made sure that this child of the 1950's grew to be a fair and equatable person.
I'm a naive Pollyanna who believes everyone of any race, colour or creed should be valued and protected by all of us - a moral duty to hold onto like a life raft in a world gone mad.
I found the post, despite its truths, to be so unsettling and many of the comments even more so. That's the problem with being a Pollyanna - totally unrealistic.
And now, a view from an old man who is neither black nor a Jew.
I really don't mean to disrespect the tragic histories of either group, but neither do I wish to be part of the woke victim tripping history lessons which are currently so popular across the culture. Before readers start throwing the rotten fruit, perhaps they might pause a minute to consider the reasoning behind that statement.
The history lessons aren't bad, in fact I would agree they are essential, especially for young people. But we should understand the price tag. Every minute we spend on the victim tripping history lessons is a minute we don't spend focused on practical solutions to real world problems that are happening today. And so without further ado, let's proceed directly to that...
PROPOSAL: What if America offered fully free education at every level to blacks and native Americans? By "fully free" I mean tuition, books, room and board, every expense which is needed to advance one's education. This plan would continue until such time as the wealth gap between whites and these minorities is erased, a specific goal line which can be measured with data.
I've been pushing this idea for years, and it never goes anywhere. Here's why.
Everyone appears to be hopelessly distracted by the blame game victim tripping history lessons quest for moral superiority and woke validation of their political correctness. I don't mean this blog, or Substack as a whole, but nearly the entire culture. That is, our discussion of such topics is typically all about us, instead of those we could assist with specific, bold, plans of action.
Could my proposal be improved? Of course! But that won't happen. What will happen instead is that maybe a few readers will post why my proposal is wrong, bad, will never work, and why as an old white man who is not a Jew I have no right to speak etc etc.
And then discussion of specific, bold, plans of action will be discarded, and we'll head straight back to the blame game victim tripping history lessons.
Ok, my turn is up. I've put on the plastic rain suit and am ready to receive the rotten fruit. Fire when ready!