Mick Hartley

Back to that old story of antisemitism being excluded from "progressive" definitions of racism, since Jews, supposedly, are white and privileged.

At Quillette – How Social-Justice Extremists Spawned a Generation of ‘Progressive’ Antisemites:

In 2019, the Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) division of Stanford University’s Student Affairs department launched a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training program with a mandate to instruct students about institutional racism. Instead, the program provided a case study of how radicalized forms of social-justice indoctrination can fuel antisemitism.

Earlier this year, Dr Ron Albucher, a Stanford psychiatrist and a former CAPS director, along with his colleague Sheila Levin, an eating-disorder specialist in the same department, filed complaints with federal and state civil-rights agencies regarding what they alleged to be “severe and persistent anti-Jewish harassment.” “Unfortunately, what we found was that the very program meant to help build an inclusive environment for all members of the Stanford community was, in fact, perpetrating the invidious discrimination it sought to eliminate,” wrote the complainants in an open letter published by the Stanford Daily last month.

The dialog-based seminars organized by CAPS were primarily aimed at addressing racial injustice suffered by individuals classified under broad categories, including black, indigenous, and people of color. The organizers used these categories to break participants up into racially segregated “affinity groups.” Albucher and Levin were assigned to the group designated under the label “whiteness accountability.” In the sessions, the pair alleges, seminar committee members “maligned and marginalized Jews by castigating them as powerful and privileged perpetrators who contribute to systemic racism.” Meanwhile, seminar moderators “intentionally overlooked antisemitic incidents” happening on campus.

On one occasion, the DEI group came together for a special session to discuss the “Zoom Bombing” of a Stanford University-wide virtual town hall meeting, which was marred by participants posting racist and antisemitic messages, invoking the N-word and images of swastikas. According to Albucher and Levin:

In the discussion of this event … DEI committee leaders decided to omit the swastikas, stating that they did not want antisemitism to dominate the discussion since Jews are wealthy business owners. When more swastikas were discovered in [Stanford] Memorial Church, DEI facilitators said we would discuss this incident only if time permitted. Yet, there was no further mention of this blatant expression of antisemitism. Failing to even acknowledge the very images used to promote Jewish genocide, especially during a DEI training, is deeply concerning.

These episodes have gained widespread attention because Stanford is an elite school, the alleged behaviour is particularly egregious, and witnesses to them have launched official complaints to government agencies. But this is not an isolated phenomenon. Indeed, what’s happened at Stanford is emblematic of progressive ideological doctrines that now treat the Jewish community as collateral damage in the push to attack and stigmatize “whiteness.”

And, as ever, the left's obsession with Israel gets drawn in to the picture:

Since CSJ [Critical Social Justice ideology] encourages the idea that Israel’s relationship with Palestinians can be cast in the same one-size-fits-all white-oppressor-versus-non-white-victim model, it is not surprising that hostility to Israel became embedded in the Black Lives Matter movement and endorsed by the academics who support it. During Israel’s most recent conflict with Hamas, progressive Democrats vilified the Jewish state for acts of self-defense. One congressman, Jamaal Bowman, claimed Israel was murdering “Black and brown bodies,” as if Hamas might be seen as one giant collective George Floyd. At Princeton University, a collectively authored “statement of solidarity” from academics denounced “Jewish supremacy,” an inartful attempt to present Israeli Jews as a Middle Eastern Ku Klux Klan. Black Lives Matter tweeted support for “Free Palestine,” while referring to Israel as “settler colonialists” and trying to draw a linkage between defunding American police and ending support for Israel. Antisemitic incidents around the world are surging, and are often conducted on the pretext of striking back at Israel. CSJ ideology serves as an enabling ideology for much of this hatred, insofar as it blurs the line between antisemitic hate and legitimate social-justice protest.

Worth reading in full.