This business with Shaun King and Farrakhan is interesting to me. Another opportunity to think hard about how we successfully build and maintain coalitions, and also just our regular old ethical obligations to each other.
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But beyond that, the question of whether a figure like Farrakhan should ever invite nuance is interesting. On one hand, the question is pretty moot re: Farrakhan bc even if you take a black-first approach, he was involved in Malcom’s murder and treats women horrifically.
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But if it were simply “Farrakhan is a virulent anti-Semite who has also done a lot of good for a lot of extremely marginalized black folks,” would that mean we have to drop him immediately and unquestioningly?
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On one hand, I still encourage everybody to read the GOAT James Baldwin’s piece “Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White.” It is necessary context, esp bc it describes the world Farrakhan would have grown up in. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-antisem.html …
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But on the other hand, how can you ask someone to walk hand in hand with you while you walk hand in hand with someone who openly and violently hates them? Especially at a moment of increasing danger for both of you?
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And like... if I’m Jewish I HAVE to side-eye you for giving a wishy-washy response to Farrakhan. I have to decrease the extent to which I trust you. That’s just self-preservation.
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But then as a black person, do I suddenly have to disavow all of the good work done by the Nation over all these years? Do I have to let go of that organization’s hand to hold my Jewish friend’s? Should I?
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What I’m interested in, as always, is: how do I thread the needle that allows me to prove trustworthy to both sides? Maybe it can’t be done in this case. Or in the hypothetical case where Farrakhan isn’t trash in like 50000 other ways, lol.
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Anyway, I liked what somebody else wrote on twitter about how you have to root your practice of black liberation in love for black people. And I suppose I’d extend that to say you have to root your practice of anti-anti-Semitism in love for Jewish people.
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End of conversation
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