Comments

2
last I checked, Zionism is a political issue not a racial or religious issue.
3
Clearly Charles doesn't understand anti-semitism (Arabs are Semites) nor does he understand Zionism.
4
Assuming that a Jewish person is automatically from Israel *is* anti-Semetic. It's very thinly-veiled code.
5
Is it anti-Semitic to claim, inaccurately, that someone was part of an organization that regularly commits acts of terrorism?
6
@5:

I would say it's an attempt (albeit a rather inept one) to paint Eisenberg as "gulity by association", which, as @4 points out does have some pretty clear anti-Semetic subtext.
7
@6: Point taken.
8
It also shows a marked lack of historical knowledge, since the CD was the Jewish neighborhood before it became the African-American neighborhood. Many of the churches here are repurposed synagogues, which can be seen in the architecture and Star of David decorations.

Of course, if we start going by "who was here first" we're going to have to give it all back to the area tribes, but baseless accusations and namecalling aren't good for anyone.
9
You have to jump through a lot of hoops to avoid seeing this as antisemitism.
11
What @10 said. Just as many loony things are bundled into the wingnut credo, the Official Liberals have bundled in blind hatred of Israel, and blind support of their foes. It's a horrible mess, I don't support the current Israeli govt., but this boo-hiss good guy/bad guy hate from plaid-wearing pseudoliberals is just bullshit. Would be comical bullshit if it just went away.
12
@10 One also finds a lamentable tendency to describe "not holding the state of Israel in particularly high regard" as "anti-semitism".

But then here we are griping about polemics like a couple fools.
14
@10, As far as the unanimous stance of anti-semitism among black---Total B.S.

As far as that anti-semitic remark goes, I smell a provocateur.
15
good to know that Seattle BLM, like Occupy Seattle, can be avoided and ignored. Uncle Ike's has changed the neighborhood for the good, BTW.
16
It's a dog whistle, by bringing up the IDF and Israel for no actual reason, it is hard to suggest otherwise.

But no one should pretend to be surprised that there is enmity between these two communities. There is a history of bad blood based on landlord/tenant relations and Jewish owned shops in urban areas. Many prominant African American thinkers classified Jewish people as the new slave drivers back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, simply another branch of white oppression.
17
@14: What is it with Seattle that everyone has to be an outside agitator or agent provocateur?

Every drunk bro must be from out of town. Every bad driver has out of state tags. Every asshole who smashes a window is a cop in disguise. Grow up. Assholes live everywhere, including Seattle.
18
Hey Theodore, I wonder what happened to Baltimore slogger 'Rob in Baltimore'.
19
@8 fascinating point, if true. What would constitute neighborhood 'ownership' by a group that merely replaced another? Ultimately, wouldn't it be nice to think we all have a shared place?
20
Not that it's relevant here, but military service is compulsory in Israel, so anyone who turned 18 there served in the IDF. It has nothing to do with how militant someone is or isn't.
21
Thanks, Charles.

You've publicly stated what many have been talking about since Josh first pointed out this racist bullshit.

The BLM movement often is populated with the same Solidarity members, many of which are pro-BDS/anti-Israeli.

Perhaps that kind of rhetoric is so common as to become just normal, and thus - no one noticed?

Point is, it's a shame.

Thanks, Charles.
22
Oh boy, this is the sort of dumb shit I was afraid of. Between this and the characterization of all cops as the enemy, BLM is going down a dangerous path kinda like Occupy.
Hey, black activists: I know there's a lot of baggage about black anger, particularly the Angry Black Man, and that does need to be brought to the forefront and properly addressed. But FUCK SAKE, be angry about the right things. You don't want to fight and strive and demonstrate for people to hear your grievances just to have society hear the voices of the most batshit hangers-on in your movement.

@4: Exactly.
@11: /thread
@16: In fact, white separatist and black separatist groups have actually found common ground in that they both hate the Jews (and also that they both want the other separate from them).
23
Black Lives Matter as a cause, is important and will continue to be so. BLM as an "organization", leaderless or otherwise, is headed in the same direction as the Occupy movement-- the deranged lunatic fringe will commandeer it and drag it off into the weeds of their own delusional agenda, derailing its momentum and forward progress. And since it's "leaderless", they won't be able to stop it. Apparently, that's already begun. Too bad.
24
BLM loses more respect everyday it goes without central organization or a well defined message. As stated previously, the cause is good, but the people self identifying as leaders and spokes people will bring it to irrelevancy. Buh bye I say.
25
@19 Even Wikipedia covers it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Di…
26
Please, white people, stop with the "BLM said/did something that was not perfectly appropriate and accommodating to my sensibilities". Stop searching for flaws in individuals which cause you to discontinue supporting an entire movement. If you're so quick to jump ship, you weren't really on the crew anyways. That's cool. Just stop pretending you "used to support" and now they've stepped over your delicate moral boundaries causing you to flee. It's OK to admit that YOU'RE NOT REALLY LIBERAL. You voted for Obama, consider yourself the saint-that-cured-racism and now you're UTTERLY offended. They should ALL be so well-dressed and eloquent, assimilated and appealing, right?

I can only imagine that if I had to spend my entire life screaming for my rights as my friends, family and neighbors were being held hostage by a painfully obvious racist system, surrounded by a subtly racist community, I'd be less dedicated to eloquence, too. I'd protest in places that are INCONVENIENT, to make a statement. I'd say things that would garner a shitload of attention and piss people off to start the conversation again. The same conversation that's been started for decades, but seems to go nowhere as the privatized prison system builds more facilities to house millions more friends and family. As the world watches police murdering without consequence. Repeatedly.

I don't hear BLM calling for love and acceptance for all. That would be super sweet and frilly nice, but I hear rage and pain, sorrow, determination, defiance... Some speak it calmly, others not so much. Regardless, it needs to be said.


27
@26 pattio666;

Please, white people, stop with the "BLM said/did something that was not perfectly appropriate and accommodating to my sensibilities". Stop searching for flaws in individuals which cause you to discontinue supporting an entire movement.


Please, BLM ideologues, stop with calling me "white people" if I have a problem with a single ignorant, racist statement made in anger by someone calling themselves part of BLM. A) If BLM is going to be a truly transformative movement, it needs to own up to what is said in its name. That kind of self-awareness and reflection doesn't make it weaker; it makes it morally stronger. And B), not white.
28
The problem with everyone being angry, is they usually want respect.

But they instead demean others, not realizing that rarely gets respect.

Are people justified in being angry?

Sure.

But yelling won't work very well.

And it won't change much.

We learned this in the 60s, but we never did anything with the lesson.
29
@26 It's not so much that it has to be said, it's more in need of being HEARD. so when off-color remarks are SAID, people who are offended will not HEAR the important things BLM are SAYING. Prejudice exists in every animal in this kingdom we call earth as a matter of survival. so when an organization says or does things to offend people, some of the people they were trying to get through to will simply write them off as offensive(prejudge based on past experience) and stop listening to them. cuz ain't nobody got time for that!! i'm all for human rights for everybody and I hope BLM gets something productive accomplished toward what their goals are moving forward.
30
Charles, you and your other co-horts on here who equal criticizing Israel with anti-Semitism are participating in the slow Palestinian genocide. The cry of "anti-Semitism" in the 21st century is part and parcel with supporting Israel & all its doings: from its nuclear proliferation to its murdering of children ("there were terrorists hiding behind them, we had to kill those kids.")

Of course, there is actual anti-Jew bigotry, but that is completely overshadowed and drowned out by Israel's consistent use of playing the victim card whenever the subject is brought up. The slightest questioning of Israel's policies, even the suggestion that it is not the greatest country on earth brings up shrill screams and accusations. If you have anything at all to do with the BDS, you obviously laugh at the thought of sending millions of Jews to the gas chamber.

So Charles, with all do respect, take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. Take a flying fuck at the moon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oqJH1KX…
31
It should be pointed out that not everyone in the IDF is Jewish. There are a large number of Bedouin, Druze, and Circassian folks as well, even a few Muslims.

Anywho, anti-zionism is not anti-semitism. There are deep problems with racism in Israel right now. With Ethiopian Jews, African migrants, not to mention what's going on in Palestine. These are well-documented problems, both internationally, by Palestinians, and by Israeli groups. Former IDF soldiers are coming out to talk about their participation in what are essentially war crimes. The justice minister (Ayelet Shaked) posted writings calling Palestinian children snakes and essentially calling for genocide.

http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/
http://www.yesh-din.org/

I'm Jewish and I've been around the BLM movement many times. I've also been open about being Jewish. I haven't experienced any anti-semitism. That's just my anecdote though.
32
I showed my Jewish girlfriend the comments in question and she was completely unfazed by them. What's the issue here? Admittedly, the situation and manner in which the comments were made may hint at a deeper implied meaning, but it's not inherently anti-Semitic to incorrectly label someone as Israeli or a former member of the IDF.

@10 and @11: I'm extremely skeptical about the verity of your comments. I've lived in Seattle for seven years and Western Washington all my life and have never observed antisemitism of any kind.
33
People know who he is and are afraid of him. Hence, the silence.
34
@32: It's a dogwhistle for the old "secret Jewish world government conspiracy" thingie.
35
@34

I get that's what being alleged, but it isn't. More a misstatement. He didn't really imply that it was some Jewish conspiracy. It has more to do with how some folks in the BLM movement are showing solidarity with the struggles of the Palestinians.

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/more…
36
umm, @ #32 Mr./Ms. 1878: as far as the existence of anti-Semitism in Western Washington, the shooting of five women employees at the Seattle Jewish Federation by Naveed Haq in July 2006 is an extreme example. One of those women died, as a result of Haq acting violently on his conviction that "[t]hese are Jews. I'm tired of getting pushed around, and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East."

On a personal level, as a teacher at a local high school in 2004, during a Martin Luther King Day assembly, I heard a student seated directly in front of me yell "you faggot Jew" across the gym at another student. Granted, he was a freshman, and freshmen sometimes take a while to get civilized. I also walked by a group of students in the school library in time to hear the complaint "don't be such a Jew" leveled at a student displaying a business sized envelope full of paper bus transfers by another who was asking for a transfer of a particular color. When I asked what he meant by "such a Jew," I got a lot of hemming and hawing. At least the kid had the grace to realize he should feel embarrassed.
37
So who contacted the speaker at the event to ask him to clarify his comments? Nobody?

Anyone contact Ian Eisenberg to confirm that he wasn't born in Israel? Nobody?

38
Oh and during the Occupy Seattle days, there was no love for Israeli or the IDF. Their complaints were much larger and louder than the we see in this BLM protest, except Occupy got a free pass from the Stranger.
39
#37 are you looking for a copy of my birth certificate???? I guess I keep good company with Obama.
42
Mudedewhatthefuck ! Last summer you wrote the words "Jews are now killing innocent Palestenians" in regards to last Summer's Hamas bombings. I've seen a lot of casual anti semitism when the Stranger covers Israel you should really check yourself
43
@36 You're really grasping at straws when you use one crazed mass murderer and a handful of 15 year olds as evidence of widespread antisemitism in Western Washington of the type @10 and @11 allege exists here. Keyword: widespread.
46
I don't know which is more perplexing, the conflation of anti-colonialism with anti-Semitism, or the allusion that Marissa must be some kind of racist for asserting that white supremacy kills black people.

Please, Mudhead, if you missed the pictures of dark-skinned Palestinians being firebombed and bulldozed out of their homes, there is an abundance of evidence that the US and Israel both persecute people who share struggle against a common aggressor. If you don't 'believe' that then your beliefs prevent you from seeing it.

The hackneyed canard of antisemitism is the first layer of denial of the existence of the modern colonial state. Explotiation knows no national boundaries.

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