Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Category errors

An interesting piece, The Systemic Antisemitism Of Woke Culture/Leftism by Jeff Dunetz.  The strong and longstanding association between left leaning parties and anti-semitism is very striking.  In a European context, more centered on class as it's politics are, it sort of makes a little bit of sense if you equate Jews with the capitalist class.  Not appropriate of course, but at least there is an identifiable logic.  

But the extremity of the anti-semitism of the former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, made this excuse seem insufficient.  

Here in the US, where class is usually unacknowledged, it is harder to leverage the conflation of anti-semitism with anti-capitalism.  Dunetz recaps modern partisan anti-semitism and advances some theories as to why it is so prevalent in the Democratic party.  Mostly they're reasonable theories but not especially compelling.

I did find this discussion interesting.

One thing you may have noticed in the rise in Anti-Semitic attacks that occurred after the recent Israel war with the terrorists of Hamas is that Antisemitism is rarely criticized without mentioning Islamophobia.

But that’s not totally new.  In 2019 when some Democrats wanted to rebuke Rep. Omar for her Antisemitism, the Congressional Black Caucus blocked the resolution because it didn’t mention Islamophobia.  Instead, they passed a generic resolution that basically said that being mean to others is bad.  Really?  I learned that lesson when I was a child watching programs such as Romper Room, Howdy Doody, and Captain Kangaroo. As for the Jew-hating Rep Omar, she not only voted for the measure but celebrated it as a step toward fighting Islamophobia.

At the end of June 2021, “April Powers, previously Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), left her position following an outcry that she did not mention Islamophobia in her statement about the rise in crimes against Jews.”

But has the increase in Jew hatred been matched with an increase in Muslim hatred?  Per the Examiner:

Since the NYPD regularly updates hate crime data, let’s review New York’s statistics. Of the 238 hate crimes reported in the nation’s largest city from Jan. 1 through May 30 of this year, 86 targeted Jews. This marked a 37% increase over January to May 2020. By contrast, NYPD recorded one anti-Muslim crime between January 1 and May 30; that’s a 50% decrease compared to 2020. This is all to say, there is no evidence of a spring uptick in anti-Muslim hate crimes in New York (or elsewhere). May was a dangerous month for Jews.

To put it more succinctly, tying Islamophobia to Antisemitism is just bull crap.

I like it when there is evidence to back up an assertion.  Jews are about 13% of the city's population but suffer 35% of the hate crimes is the first thing to note.  Muslims are 3.5% of the city's population and suffer 0.05% of hate crimes.  Jews suffer a disproportionate share of hate crimes compared to Muslims.  

Second is Dunetz's point.  In 2020 there were 63 hate crimes against Jews and 2 against Muslims.  For the same period in 2021 there were 86 attacks against Jews, a 37% increase.  Hate crimes against Muslims fell from 2 to one, a 50% decrease.  

So anti-semitism has a significant absolute base and is rising in New York City whereas anti-islamic hate crimes are a tiny fraction of hate crimes and falling.  


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