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1. One of the things that made for stupid unnecessary fights during this Omar saga was the sheer amount of “reaction policing”—ppl whose contributions to the antisemitism debate consisted of telling Jews to just calm down. Perhaps that’s a function of this particular hellsite.
2. There was a writer at a major pub who writes forcefully on race, so I assumed he’d understand the pain. But he spent two days trolling Jews’ timelines to call them racist for objecting to antisemitism. Knew he could be caustic, but didn’t realize he’s just a complete dirtbag.
3. I think it’s clear if you go looking for Jews to spit at over antisemitism, and then when they hit back you play the victim, you are likely just a genuinely bad personal. But it’d be better for everyone if you didn’t demonstrate that at times like this.
4. And one of the things that this practice did was divert the conversation. If you were making Jews’ reaction the story, you were running interference for Jew-hatred. And derailing an important debate on bigotry is a bad use of this platform.
5. I confess to not even really understanding the impulse, but I would implore ppl who did this to put themselves in our shoes and imagine if it were a member of your community targeted. How much patience would you have for “be nicer to your persecutors”?
6. This began w/Jews being targeted with bigotry from government officials. It ended with the government throwing the Jews under the bus. In the interim was a series of jackasses picking fights with Jews who dared speak up. If you contributed to any of this, time for a gut check.
7. If it rubs you the wrong way to see Jews stick up for ourselves, you’ve internalized centuries of Jew-hatred and think the status quo—in which Jews can be stepped on without a second thought—is acceptable. It’s not. Shut your mouth and open your ears and listen to us. /fin
