On April 1, Central District activist Omari Tahir-Garrett was caught on camera telling the Jewish owner of Uncle Ike's on 23rd and Union, Ian Eisenberg, to "go back to Germany" so that "the Nazis" could get him. The response from Tahir-Garrett's fellow activists—in the form of social media, a statement from Tahir-Garrett's son Wyking Garrett, and a lengthy Medium post—largely took a defensive position, minimized what Tahir-Garrett said, and suggested that people should not be concerned by his comments in the first place, given that the activists' original focus was on the Central District's black community, and not Jews.

Over the weekend, one of the main organizations protesting displacement of the Central District's black community revised its own public statement and issued a strong condemnation of Tahir-Garrett's words. Today, Standing Against Foreclosure and Eviction (S.A.F.E), published two new statements, both describing Tahir-Garrett's comments as "abhorrent and saddening."

"We condemn the anti-semitic statements made by Mr. Garrett and regardless of our opposition to practices of developers, business-people, or landlords that are predatory and/or displace people, we won’t indulge xenophobia or antisemitism to critique or attack them," the statement reads. "Our movement and our being is about inclusion, not exclusion and certainly not antisemitism."

I'm not going to pretend I don't have a personal connection to this news item. On Friday, I lost it on Twitter over the response to the Tahir-Garrett video because of my own family's history. After that, writer Ijeoma Oluo reached out to me, as did S.A.F.E organizer Cliff Cawthon, and all three of us spoke by phone. Oluo published a Facebook video with her response to the events of last week; Cawthon apologized to me personally.

Both statements from Cawthon's organization are reprinted below. Thank you to both Cliff and Ijeoma.

We, Standing Against Foreclosure and Eviction (S.A.F.E.), unequivocally condemn antisemitic statements made by Omari Tahir Garrett on April 1st, 2017. In the last week a number of individuals have questioned whether or not S.A.F.E.’s original statement actually condemns the statements that Mr. Garrett made to Ian Eisenberg, so we, as an organization wanted to clear up any confusion or misrepresentation of our position.

In the statement we issued on April 1st and was spread to various media outlets, we stated the following:

“We absolutely will not defend his statements, yet we will defend his right to housing and we will not stand aside as Hugh Bangasser, of K&L Gates and Midtown Properties, and Ian Eisenberg, of Uncle Ike's, work together to push the Black community out of the Central District.”

We stand by the main point of our position: we will neither defend nor condone, and in this case, we condemn statements which make light or deny such atrocities of the holocaust and reinforce the dehumanization of Jewish people based on their religious and ethnic identity.

We condemn the anti-semitic statements made by Mr. Garrett and regardless of our opposition to practices of developers, business-people, or landlords that are predatory and/or displace people, we won’t indulge xenophobia or antisemitism to critique or attack them. Our movement and our being is about inclusion, not exclusion and certainly not antisemitism.

His statement for Mr. Eisenberg to “Go back to Germany” so “the Nazis can get you again” was abhorrent and saddening.These statements don’t represent us, or the work happening in our anti-displacement campaign in the Central District.

We have attached our full clarification as well.

For any questions, or concerns, please contact our Lead Organizer, Cliff Cawthon at cliff.safeinseattle@gmail.com.

In the movement to fight gentrification, opposing predatory practices of developers, business-people, landlords, slumlord and financial institutions that displace people, we wish to support the communities who are most affected. In this case- as well as many- the legacy of anti-Black and racist policies make Black communities far more vulnerable to displacement and disenfranchisement. Nevertheless, these spaces have allies, accomplices and people of conscience who come from many different backgrounds, including those from the Jewish community, to support those who are most affected by injustice and speaking their truth.

S.A.F.E. issued a statement on April 1st and was spread to various media outlets, we stated the following:

"We absolutely will not defend Omari Tahir Garrett statements, yet we will defend his right to housing and we will not stand aside as Hugh Bangasser, of K&L Gates and Midtown Properties, and Ian Eisenberg, of Uncle Ike's, work together to push the Black community out of the Central District."

We, S.A.F.E. (Standing Against Foreclosure and Eviction) unequivocally condemn anti-semitic statements made by Omari Tahir Garrett. We will not defend, nor condone and in this case, condemn statements which make light or deny such atrocities of the holocaust and reinforce the dehumanization of Jewish people based on their religious and ethnic identity. His statement for Mr. Eisenberg to “Go back to Germany” so “the Nazi’s can get you again” was abhorrent and saddening. To support or silently allow blatant or latent anti-semitism is to betray that spirit of intersectional and multi-racial unity. Our movement and our being is about inclusion, not exclusion and certainly not anti-semitism.

We, as an organization, cannot speak for our allies. However, from our perspective and conversations with our partners, the movement as a whole can not be, and is not, a place where anti-antisemitism is allowed.

Moreover, fascism and anti-semitism are on the rise. Before the election of President Obama in 2008, and increasingly since the rise of Donald Trump to the Presidency, we have seen a growth of neo-nazi organizations and hate groups. Within the Trump administration the empowerment of white supremacists and toleration of their abhorrent philosophies has become commonplace; for example locally, the anti-semetic vandalism of Temple De Hersh Sinai in Capitol Hill. We acknowledge and take that threat very seriously, and we are in total opposition to that unequivocally.

The Central District was the historical heart of Black Seattle for over 150 years up to today. The concentration of Black residents there goes back to racial ‘covenants’, or rather, redlining where- as current trends are a reversal- the Black population was forced to live in specific neighborhoods, and often denied or underserved. In addition to the Black community, the Central District has also been home to the Jewish and Japanese-American communities, as well as other groups who have faced persecution in the U.S. and abroad. These traumas were real and still resonate systemically today.

In our work, we wish to address a part of the legacies of disenfranchisement. We believe that we must move forward with a spirit of intersectional, candid and real solidarity and honor the history of common struggle.

We are fighting for our neighbors right to housing- all of them. The acknowledgment of the dignity and value of everyone requires acknowledging their fundamental right to housing and community and vice versa.

It our hope that pushing a positive conversation forward can heal trauma, as well as promote the type of inclusive development that is needed to prevent vulnerable communities from being pushed out of the city and away from the region. None of that will be accomplished by permitting anti-semitism or other forms of xenophobic speech, which only serves to denigrate and dehumanize others and detracts from our goals of building what Dr. King called, “the Beloved Community”.

For any questions, or concerns, please contact our Lead Organizer, Cliff Cawthon at cliff.safeinseattle@gmail.com.