Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, was a member of a Harvard University student group that hosted an anti-Semitic speaker during her senior year, according to a report from Fox News Digital.
Jackson was a member of the Black Students Association (BSA) during her senior year at Harvard in 1992 when the organization hosted controversial City University of New York professor Leonard Jeffries.
Jeffries was the subject of a 1991 report by The American Jewish Committee (AJC) on anti-semitism in the Afrocentrism movement, which described him as the following:
Dr. Leonard Jeffries is a central member of this movement – one that is Europhobic and anti-Semitic, as well as racist, anti-Arab and anti-Catholic. But anti-Semitism is what it does best. Anti-Semitism is not an “add on” for Dr. Jeffries’ Afrocentrism – it is a central part, […] Dr. Jeffries’ brand of anti-Semitism is of the classic mold — it sees hidden conspiracies attacking the body of a non- Jewish population.
The report went on to say that Jeffries “preaches Jew-hatred like a religion.”
Jeffries’ attitudes were well known and controversial enough at the time that his invitation to speak sparked protests.
According to a Feb. 4, 1992 article in the Harvard Crimson which Fox News reviewed, the Harvard chapter of Hillel, the Gay-Straight Alliance, and even the College Democrats protested the BSA’s event featuring Jeffries.
“The day before the Crimson article, student Jessica Yellin — who went on to become a chief White House correspondent at CNN — called on the BSA to take back its invitation, warning that it would offer ‘a Harvard podium to an avowed anti-Semite’ whose ‘teachings are laced with vicious attacks on Jews and distorted interpretations of history,'” Fox reported.
Outrage didn’t prevent Jeffries from speaking, and professors blasted his speech afterward. However, there is no indication that Ketanji Brown Jackson ever spoke out about Jeffries’ speaking or objected to her group’s hosting the event, which raises questions about her attitudes towards Jewish people and black supremacy.
Joe Biden has been criticized in the past for making several racist and anti-Semitic comments over the years, including using the anti-Semitic slur “shylock” back in 2014.
Jackson’s confirmation hearings in the Senate will begin on March 21, and it would be rather negligent of Senate Republicans not to inquire about this.
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