Afrolantica, Part 16: The Progressive Faith Vs The Jewish Faith
Part 1: A Guided Tour Through Derrick Bell’s Afrolantica Legacies
Part 2: A ‘Euphoria of Freedom’
Part 3: What Could it Mean to Be White?
Part 4: The Wages of Antisemitism
Part 5: Thomas Jefferson, A Symbol of American Racism
Part 6: Why Meritocracy Must Die
Part 7: Unemployment Creates Crack Dealers
Part 8: We Have a Right to Your Property
Part 9: The Birth of ‘Blackness’
Part 10: Apocalyptic Prophet of Racial War?
Part 11: The Brown-Skinned Joan of Arc
Part 12: Critical Race Theory’s Distortion of Trayvon Martin
Part 13: The Roots of the War on Meritocracy
Part 14: The Marxist War Within the Multi-Racial Family
Part 15: The White Bourgeoisie Conspiracy to Dupe the Black Proletariat
After “The Citadel,” the third Afrolantica legacy comes in “Shadowboxing: Blacks, Jews and Games Scapegoats Play,” a chapter I discussed previously in Part 4: The Wages of Antisemitism. (The shootings of four Jews in Toulouse, France seemed an appropriate time to highlight the lethal effect of tolerating antisemitic ideologies.)
And so having already diagnosed the antisemitic views in the chapter, now let’s consider Bell’s bigotry in the context of his Marxism.
Why the indifference to antisemitism? For the same original reason as Karl Marx himself, because Judaism disrupts the establishment of utopia.
Here’s how Bell chooses to conclude the chapter on page 108, with a quotation from Albert Vorspan and David Saperstein:
Let’s translate the quote line by line:
We can find no safety in turning inward upon ourselves, severing our links with the general community.
Translation: More lethal antisemitism will come if Jews continue remaining Jews. Jewish identity must be watered down.
We can find safety only if we help America deal not only with the symptoms — hatred, rage, bigotry — but with the root problems of our society — slums, powerlessness, decay of our cities, and unemployment, which spawn the evils of bigotry and conflict.
Translation: To end antisemitism we must end crime and to end crime we must end economic inequality. (Vorspan and Saperstein appear to share Bell’s contention discussed in Part 7: Unemployment Creates Crack Dealers.)
Our task as Jews must go beyond the defensive job of countering the attacks of anti-Semitism to helping bring about a just and peaceful society.
Translation: defending the progressive faith is more important than defending the Jewish faith. When the two conflict, Jews should embrace the former. And today in America the majority do.
The Huffington Post reported this week on continued Jewish support for Bell’s admirer, President Barack Obama:
More Jews (46 percent) named a “commitment to social equality” as the factor most important to their Jewish identity, followed by 20 percent who said “support for Israel” and 17 percent who said “religious observance.”
…
The poll also showed Jewish voters’ strong support for Obama. Twice as many said they would vote for Obama over a GOP candidate. That level of support is nearly unchanged from the same point during Obama’s first presidential run.
Kenneth Wald, a political science professor who studies Jewish voting patterns at the University of Florida, said he has heard the political chatter that U.S. Jews are so upset with Obama’s treatment of Israel that they will move away from their traditionally Democratic leanings and vote for a GOP challenger — but the survey doesn’t find evidence for that.
“About three out of four American Jews voted Democratic in 2008,” Wald said. “Something relatively similar is likely to occur in 2012.”
I would like to wish my Jewish friends a happy Passover this weekend. Thank you for keeping your tradition alive in spite of all the threats lined up against you and all the challenges that remain ahead.
The Vorspan/Saperstein quote written above happens to have nothing objectionable in it. It’s only because the authors are Reform (well, presumably Leftist) that caused the blogger to react negatively towards it. The “translations” above are less in the passage than they are in the beliefs of the blogger. I happen to agree with the messages of his translations, but those translations are not borne out by the quote. As a Right-wing Jew, I can find countless objectionable things written by Left-wing Jews, but this quote is not one of them.
Hmm… I wonder why this quote is selected by Derrick Bell at the end of an essay in which he defends the antisemite Louis Farrakhan, accuses Jews of bearing responsibility for inspiring antisemitism, and embraces the “Jews control the economy” conspiracy theory.
Because the differences and intentions of Jews who advocate abandoning all faith as the only way to survive anti-Semitism and Jews who advocate merely abandoning the total immersion in the practices of faith and trusting exclusively to divine action as the only way to survive anti-Semitism becomes heavily blurred when it is mixed with the differences and intentions of Jews who advocate abandoning any semblance of a Jewish existence to embrace Marxism, Jews who maintain a concept of Jewish existence while embracing Marxism to a greater or (sometimes much) lesser degree, Jews who advocate creating a new aspect of faith-based existence in which Marxism may not even be acceptable.
Exactly which category do Vorspan and Saperstein fit in?
I have not read their rhetoric enough to know.
Am I willing to accept Derrick Bell’s opinion as accurate without significant confirmation?
Not a chance.
Again agreeing with Toulira, it is quite likely Bell chose to read it the way he wanted to use it.
Conversely as I presented, those particular lines, as presented there, are completely compatible with the basic principles of modernizing Jews who still retain a firm faith and just believe they have to actually put some effort into helping themselves survive.
The Vorspan/Saperstein quote written above happens to have nothing objectionable in it. It’s only because the authors are Reform (well, presumably Leftist) that caused the blogger to react negatively towards it. The “translations” above are less in the passage than they are in the beliefs of the blogger. I happen to agree with the messages of his translations, but those translations are not borne out by the quote. As a Right-wing Jew, I can find countless objectionable things written by Left-wing Jews, but this quote is not one of them.
As Tourila said, there is nothing inherently objectionable in that passage.
Let me translate:
“We can find no safety in turning inward upon ourselves, severing our links with the general community.”
Translation: More lethal antisemitism will come if Jews continue acting like that Hasidim, ignoring the outside world, and just accepting pogroms as routine.
“We can find safety only if we help America deal not only with the symptoms — hatred, rage, bigotry — but with the root problems of our society — slums, powerlessness, decay of our cities, and unemployment, which spawn the evils of bigotry and conflict.”
Translation: To end antisemitism we must get rid of the underclass that has always been used to commit pogroms against Jews. Because of their hopelessness they are willing to listen to any race-baiter eager to distract their rage by giving them Jews as a target.
“Our task as Jews must go beyond the defensive job of countering the attacks of anti-Semitism to helping bring about a just and peaceful society.”
Translation: Acting in accordance the Jewish faith will protect us. Being a “light unto the nations” requires more than just strutting around and saying we are superior. We must actually work to bring justice and peace to everyone. In doing so we will remove the need for others to attack us, making the lives of Jews and non Jews better.
Now Vorspan and Saperstein may have intended to simply promote dissolution through assimilation and raw “progessivism”, but the words of that quote reflect a combination of modern Jewish assertiveness combined with fundamental Jewish religious principles.
Ok, so why did Bell quote this passage?
My guess is that, when interpreted his way, the passage suited his purposes. It appears that’s the thing to do.
I apologize for posting twice above. My internet connection had issues.