A recent report issued by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International published toward the end of 2023 found that 73% of Jewish college students surveyed have personally experienced or have witnessed antisemitic incidents on their campuses since the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. Many of these same respondents do not feel safe as Jews at their colleges and universities, especially since Hamas’ attack on Israeli Jews on October 7 and the war between Israel and Hamas.
The report, in addition to one conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also found a significant uptick in Islamophobic incidents throughout the U.S. including college campuses. For example, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot in Burlington, Vermont at the end of November.
The U.S. Congress would have been justified in investigating what is occurring to find well-reasoned solutions in solving problems of antisemitic, Islamophobic, as well as all of the many forms of oppressive confrontations on our campuses.
Instead, sadly, the MAGA wing of the Republican House’s slim majority chose to concoct a sham show trial, actually an inquisition, against three prominent female presidents representing some of our most prestigious universities purportedly to look into their policies in tackling antisemitism on their campuses. The committee showed no concern or interest over rising Islamophobic incidents.
Leading the highly coordinated attack was Elise Stephanik (R-NY) and her far-right extremist Republican House of Representatives accomplices whose major goal was clear from the outset of the “hearing.” (Actually, the extremists were not in attendance to hear the testimonies of the witnesses, but rather to attack and criticize these women in front of the television cameras).
Rather than seeking to accumulate information on the state of policy initiatives in balancing student and faculty First Amendment rights of freedom of speech with their rights to feel safe and secure, the MAGA gang followed through on its intended inquisition by attacking the university presidents’ credentials and integrity and delegitimized what could have been a valid discussion on issues of campus safety.
These MAGA Representatives and the movement generally have no interest in reducing antisemitism in the country, especially those who support Donald Trump who continually employs antisemitic tropes in his speeches and on social media to rile up his sycophants.
Hypocritically, the Committee at the “hearing” employed its dishonest and cynical “concern” for fighting antisemitism on campus as a wedge and a ploy in its ultimate attack on issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and to place the final nail in the coffin of Affirmative Action in higher education stemming from the recent Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) v. President & Fellows of Harvard College (Harvard) and SFFA v. University of North Carolina.
The previous Spanish and Mexican inquisitions of the 15th century targeted Jews in show trials resulting in mass conversions to Christianity, murder, and expulsions. The recent Congressional inquisition against female university presidents, and especially against Harvard President Claudine Gay, an African American woman, attempted to use the rising tide of antisemitism on Jewish college and university students as MAGA’s pawns in its conspiracy to silence diverse voices, DEI initiatives, and to terminate academic freedom.
The committee has taken lessons learned from conservative state legislatures, boards of education, and governors in placing severe limits mandating what can be discussed and read in the public schools, and it is now attempting to dictate politics against supposed “wokeness” regarding hiring policies and academic standards in higher education.
In fact, Jewish students are among those on the front lines in the fight to expand DEI initiatives as well as racial and gender justice on campus and throughout the nation.
To be clear and unequivocal: Jews refuse to be used as pawns of the far-right!
Divide and Conquer:
Swimming through my mind is a series of cartoon pictures, which can be seen as symbolizing the political, economic, religious, and social inequalities of our times, and how we can move forward.
The pictures depict reverse images where in the upper graphic, a gigantic monster fish propels open mouthed engulfing smaller fish who attempt to escape from being consumed. The lower picture shows the smaller fish joining together e pluribus unum chasing and ultimately defeating the gigantic fish who once seemed so overwhelmingly powerful.
I understand the gigantic fish as representing the system of patriarchal Christian white supremacy, a system that uses the strategy of fear and division to maintain and extend its power and control.
Actions used and words expressed by those consciously or inadvertently advancing the patriarchal Christian white supremacist system are many. They employ the strategy of “divide and conquer” to ensure that the gigantic fish continues to feed ferociously for all time.
Patriarchal Christian white supremacy wins by building walls of division, while inhibiting attempts to construct bridges connecting people.
Donald Trump and the MAGA movement he has spawned has dedicated itself to erecting walls to divide and conquer, to “win” at any cost. The rise of MAGA has resulted in furthering the already deep skid marks across the landscape with a historic collective fracture of divisions and anxiety on the body politic.
Trump has excited the worst in the human psyche. But Trump has merely served as a tool – a toxic elixir – that has revealed the iceberg of the largely submerged resentment and fear of the “other.” By his example, he has given others permission to reveal their own xenophobic beliefs with strength and even with pride.
Trump and his movement could be placed into the category of “Machiavellian” in its single mindedness, cunning, plotting, and unscrupulous – sometimes vicious — actions in advancing their power and fortune and enacting its policies. To them, the ends certainly justify the means no matter who gets hurt.
Returning to our fish pictures, the bottom figure depicts coalition politics that will ultimately lessen and end the many systems of oppression against us all. This presents an important way forward. We can defeat the MAGA fish.
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