New Article: The Passive/Aggressive Alt-Right Binary: Megyn Kelly and Bill Maher Against “Woke” Values
David Shasha
The Passive/Aggressive Alt-Right Binary: Megyn Kelly and Bill Maher Against “Woke” Values
I recently made note of Bari Weiss’ appearance on the Megyn Kelly podcast:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/ihBGNO_iel8
Here is the link to that episode, which is in essence a frontal assault on Cancel Culture and all things “Woke” in the standard Trumpist manner:
Looking at the list of Kelly’s past programs we conveniently find both Jodi Shaw and Christopher Rufo:
The Manhattan Institute Rufo appeared in my article on John McWhorter and the new Neo-Conservatism:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/ocCkHawJzrY
It now appears that there is an organized movement against Cancel Culture which prominently features Ms. Shaw, the (in)famous “Rapping Librarian”:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/uqozHLA4G9E/m/jzDPTcK5AQAJ
It is not at all surprising that Weiss is at the very epicenter of it:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/whistleblower-at-smith-college-resigns
She has just written a “Thank You” note that explains how it all works, and how much cool cash it is netting her:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/thank-you
It confirms my supposition that her New York Times resignation stunt was a very savvy career move:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/t72VVlNij08/m/oJj9jnDtBQAJ
It is how you build your White Jewish brand these days.
It is also no surprise that she recently connected with Park Avenue Synagogue’s Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, another Tikvah Fund Neo-Con loyalist, whose reactionary sermons appeared in SHU 928:
For those who might have missed it, here is that newsletter again:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/dFjjOmXsE5o/m/z72IV5vmBwAJ
What we have been seeing is a frenzied regrouping of the Neo-Cons after the defeat of Trump; a movement that allows Right Wing radical Jews like Weiss and Ben Shapiro to embrace Anti-Semites like Gina Carano under the anti-Cancel Culture banner:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/VAJP2Ji2ZA8
Kelly found her way to the Bill Maher show where she raised many of these new Neo-Con issues:
https://www.thewrap.com/bill-maher-megyn-kelly-normalize-white-supremacy-video/
For those who may not remember, she was “cancelled” by NBC for remarks defending the use of Blackface:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/23/media/megyn-kelly-blackface/index.html
We have just seen another egregious example of Blackface coming from the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood:
And Tikvah loves them some Lakewood:
https://tikvahfund.org/faculty/rabbi-aaron-kotler/
Indeed, it is all in the MISHPOCHEH!
Maher has for a long time been doing the Neo-Con racist dance, as his New Atheism and obsession with Political Incorrectness has often led him into the Richard Dawkins/Sam Harris reactionary hole:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/OAiKDUEMRUQ/m/uf6bnWH0DQAJ
The New Atheists have also lent their support to the Alt-Right:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2013/may/03/atheism-dawkins
Maher’s meeting of the minds with Kelly was yet another chapter in this sordid history.
The infuriating discussion was quickly feted by the Right Wing Jewish media:
The pair presented a united front against Smith College, former home of Jodi Shaw, and also went after the private school of Kelly’s children for allegedly forced Sexual Indoctrination:
In the opening interview on Maher’s HBO show, Kelly went on to describe how the school entered her third-grade son in what she referred to as “an experimental trans education program on these 8- and 9-year-old boys. And it wasn’t about support. We felt it was about trying to convince them, like, ‘Come on over!'”
And, of course, there was the obligatory dig at the new Anti-Racism:
There was also a letter, she said, that the school circulated that spoke of “black bodies dropping around us” in the streets for which white supremacists were to blame, a comment which Kelly called “divisive” and “racist.”
She then recounted an exercise where the children were told to write a letter to the Cleveland Indians baseball team, objecting to their mascot:
“Then, our kindergartner was told to write a letter to the Cleveland Indians objecting to their mascot,” she added with a laugh. “Now, he’s six. Like, can he learn how to spell Cleveland before we activate him?”
There are many issues that we need to untangle here.
The first is the ongoing racism against people of color, specifically African-Americans; a trend that was certainly exacerbated by Trump, who elevated White Nationalist Fascism to legitimate status.
That trend was linked to the so-called “Big Lie” which claimed that the election was stolen from Trump.
We have seen how Republican legislatures all over the country are working to further erode Voting Rights in order to suppress the minority vote:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/politics/voting-rights-state-legislation/index.html
And while there were many protests all over the country seeking justice for African-American victims of police shootings, the whole thing has largely faded away as the killers have seen indictments and court cases vanish into thin air, as taxpayers continue to shell out the big bucks in civil lawsuits:
https://www.voanews.com/usa/race-america/factbox-criminal-charges-police-killings-black-americans
An article from The New York Times published last September clarifies the matter more generally:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/us/police-killings-prosecution-charges.html
We will of course recall the stark difference between how the police handled the Trump Capitol Insurrectionists and how they handled the Black Lives Matter protesters:
https://apnews.com/article/congress-storming-black-lives-matter-22983dc91d16bf949efbb60cdda4495d
Just two days after the Maher program was broadcast, John Oliver’s show, also on HBO, devoted its main segment to a devastating exposé of police raids; the majority of which are directed against people of color:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/01/john-oliver-us-police-raids-last-week-tonight
Here is the complete segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYdi1bL6s10
After watching such a heart-wrenching report, it becomes that much clearer how callous and tone-deaf both Kelly and Maher are as they arrogantly present their rich White scumbag elitism to the rest of us. Maybe they should watch the video and apologize.
So, on the matter of Black Lives Matter and the ongoing erosion of Civil Rights, they are way out of line. Young children need to be brought up to speed on the problem, and must begin to see what White Privilege means, and process the damage it is doing to all of us.
It is not something that, as Kelly stupidly insisted, which will kindle a potential racism in the children; but would properly serve to make them aware of the dire situation this country now finds itself in, and how minority families are under assault from an unaccountable police force.
Then there is the difficult matter of Sexuality and Gender Orientation.
Let it first be said without hesitation that young children should not be receiving any explicitly sexual education until there is a universal mandate from the recognized psychological authorities as to when it is safe and efficacious to do so.
In addition, it is completely unacceptable for those on either side of the political spectrum to deploy institutional power as a weapon in a capricious, hateful, or arbitrary manner. Everyone must be entitled to due process and a fair hearing of the potential charges being levied against them.
Such judicious parameters must not provide an opportunity for the Right Wing reactionaries to dismiss those who speak out against the tyranny of the majority.
It is therefore important to note that Kelly is still conversant in the FOX News White Grievance playbook, and knows quite well how to push the racial buttons; something that she learned over her 12 years as an anchor at that network:
The list of FOX’s Alt-Right sins is quite long and involved.
There was, of course, the endless gaslighting on “caravans” and alien invasions:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuccinelli-caravans-us-border-coronavirus-biden
And Obamacare:
And Antifa:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/what-is-antifa
And Black Lives Matter:
And COVID restrictions:
And, of course, Benghazi:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/what-the-benghazi-attack-taught-me-about-hillary-clinton
Among so many others.
The FOX idea is always to cherry pick facts, and then present the most egregious and “scary” images designed to shock poor grandma out of her wits.
The country is being overrun by savages!
It is that sensationalist style Kelly learned while at FOX, and which is still her go-to strategy.
This is how she lights the proverbial fuse as she raises the haunting specter of “victimhood”:
Megyn Kelly said that the “push” now is “to lean into victimhood.”
“And it’s not just a race thing. I mean, I see it with some of my fellow women. It’s not that the #MeToo situation wasn’t real, but we don’t have to lean into victimhood — even when we might be victims.”
This indeed is how the White Grievance works, as an on-line critic of Kelly and Maher pointed out:
“U know it’s bad when 2 very privileged, white, rich ppl are deciding what’s best for Children of Black Americans that have been tortured, harassed, murdered, incarcerated, & targeted by Police b/c of their skin color. FU @megynkelly FU @billmaher,” wrote one Twitter user.
Their discussion was very much in the vein of Helen Andrews’ demolition of the “Boomers,” which I have written about in the following article:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/V6ZacGkJwm8/m/8HXPbMDDBAAJ
As I said there, the Counterculture’s Sexual Revolution has not worked out as expected.
It is unclear to me exactly what is going on in elementary schools these days, but it is quite clear that the Neo-Cons are selectively weaponizing it in their ongoing battle against Liberal values and “Woke” culture.
Perhaps they should go to an Orthodox Yeshivah or a Catholic school, and they would better understand what real intolerance and indoctrination really is.
We can see how Trump and his sycophantic cabal successfully wedged the Cancel Culture issue, and found those in the Center and Moderate Right who decided to go with them, thus buoying the Alt-Right Insurrectionist coalition.
Conversely, we have seen a further radicalization of the African-American intellectual community.
Shortly after watching the Kelly/Maher discussion, I checked in with Jelani Cobb and his updated version of Garveyite Black Separatism on C-Span:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?508981-1/author-discussion-racial-injustice-america
Back in February 2018, I made note of Cobb’s endorsement of that Separatism in his “Black Panther” movie review from The New Yorker:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/ifSZ0tGXL58/m/vJ3c8SOWDAAJ
I included the review in SHU 838:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/0kRe-eDwU_A/m/zfy6x1AxBgAJ
The Book TV program on African-American activism featured Yale Law School Professor Elizabeth Hinton, who has just written a book which characterizes the 1960s and 1970s Black violence as “rebellions”:
https://www.amazon.com/America-Fire-History-Violence-Rebellion/dp/1631498908
Indeed, the word “violence” is limited to the police, while the looting and destruction of private property is deemed to be an “uprising”; as she explains in this 2020 article on Minneapolis and the George Floyd protests:
http://bostonreview.net/race/elizabeth-hinton-minneapolis-uprising-context
In her words:
Minneapolis residents, in turn, responded to the buildup of unanswered grievances and the lack of concrete changes to their immediate living conditions—problems of under-protection, intentional segregation, and structural exclusion that have only been exacerbated by COVID-19—by using the available resources at their disposal: throwing rocks, bricks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails at buildings, police precincts, and police cruisers; and by taking goods and food from major retailers such as Target and AutoZone, and then burning these and other institutions to the ground. Police have unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters in response, and the National Guard has been deployed. Although some protest in the city remains peaceful, and has spread to Memphis, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Birmingham, and other major cities, Minneapolis continues to burn.
These types of uprisings have been a nearly perennial occurrence in the United States for more than fifty years. In the month following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., black uprisings erupted in more than 125 cities, leading to 50 deaths and more than 15,000 arrests. In the years that followed (1968–72), at least 960 segregated black communities witnessed 2,310 separate incidents of what journalists and state security officials described as “disturbances,” “uprisings,” “rebellions,” “melees,” “eruptions,” or “riots.” As in Minneapolis today, this type of collective violence almost always started with contact between residents and the frontline representatives of the state—the police—and then quickly moved to other institutions. Indeed, following King’s murder, many black residents in cities across the United States responded to the process of criminalization and unanswered calls for greater socioeconomic inclusion by throwing rocks and punches at police officers, detonating firebombs, and plundering local stores.
What we see here is a further distancing between Liberals and Radicals; a process that is key to the Trumpist binary of Two Americas, and which can be seen in the Kelly/Maher discussion.
Hinton presents a frontal historical assault on the values of MLK, and a rejection of the Civil Rights movement’s non-violence in no uncertain terms.
Central to the process, as I have discussed many times, is the role of the Corporate Anti-Racism industry and Critical Race Theory:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/c1_dJkCTKhw/m/Zq36INbHBwAJ
The lines have been clearly drawn by people like Errin Haines, who thought it wise to attack Atticus Finch and To Kill a Mockingbird:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/xZvHTvdY1t8/m/S1aaD50VBwAJ
And of course, there is Ibram X. Kendi, a prime mover of CRT and a promoter of the New Black Separatism:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/books/review/ibram-x-kendi-by-the-book-interview.html
It is interesting to compare Kendi’s “By the Book” entries with those of his fellow Garveyite Ta-Nehisi Coates:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/books/review/ta-nehisi-coates-by-the-book.html
Kendi’s books are all Black, all the time.
I did not check each author, but it is clear that all his recommendations are Afrocentric, whether or not the writer is White or Black.
Coates, tellingly, embraces the White Jewish Supremacist and Zionist macher Barbara Tuchman:
It thus came as no surprise that Liel Leibovitz lauded “Black Panther” as a “Zionist” movie:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/black-panther-is-a-great-zionist-movie
After all, who doesn’t love Ike Perlmutter and his big fat Mar-A-Lago checks?
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/TcIDvNf1Fac/m/rBf_7N6iAAAJ
The Passive/Aggressive Alt-Right Binary is all about keeping the races separate, restoring a passionate sense of White Grievance, and maintaining the focus on who is or is not a “victim.”
Roger Ailes is laughing in his grave!
And Megyn Kelly does know something about Ailes and his own attitude towards “Wokeness” and Cancel Culture:
https://www.businessinsider.com/megyn-kelly-details-sexually-harassed-roger-ailes-fox-news-2017-11
It thus came as no surprise that just a day following my viewing of the Maher and Cobb programs, I received the following e-mail from the Ashkenazi-run American Sephardi Federation, which fits right into the whole Alt-Right Binary mess:
https://mailchi.mp/asf/newjewishactivism?e=9f39c396e1
“New Jewish Activist” Isaac de Castro represents the current HASBARAH in a way that fully dovetails with the Bari Weiss worldview:
Most would categorize right-wing and left-wing antisemitism as the most common forms of antisemitism in the United States. Both of these versions manifest themselves on college campuses. Nonetheless, right-wing antisemitism smacks us across the face. Left-wing antisemitism, disguised as criticism of Israel, seeps through the cracks and is defended by proponents of “academic freedom” and “social justice” and by professors and students themselves. Antizionism is today’s antisemitism, and its breeding ground is university classrooms. Our goal must be to recognize it as such.
It then came as absolutely no surprise to learn the following day that he is participating in one of Weiss’ McCarthyite college witch-hunts on Anti-Semitism:
He proudly heads his own McCarthyite group called “Jewish on Campus”:
Jewish on Campus is an organization that posts anonymous accounts of antisemitism on college campuses in the United States and abroad. We started in July of 2020 and have grown to more than twenty-seven thousand followers on Instagram alone. Today, we do more than post stories, but also make educational content on Zionism and Judaism, and work with university administrations to create more welcoming spaces for students on campus. Our core goal remains the same, to amplify the voices of Jewish students and fight for our inclusion.
And has naturally gone all in with the Ashkenazim on the California Ethnic Studies Curriculum:
Unsurprisingly, Isaac, an architecture major at Cornell University, is very active on social media. His byline? “The [Z]ionist your professors warned you about.” Most recently, Isaac took a strong stand on Twitter against the politically-informed portrayal of Jews, especially Greater Sepharadim, in the proposed California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum’s (ESMC’s) 3rd draft, writing: “Jews are not defined by antisemitism, discrimination or oppression. We are defined by our culture, resilience, truth, and morality. I vehemently oppose the California Ethnic Studies Curriculum’s aim to define us in this way and seek to create division. They are wrong.” The ASF’s Board of Directors agrees.
The union of De Castro, Weiss, and the ASF could be expected, given how the institutional juggernaut Jewish Insider featured the former back in December as an important young HASBARAH voice:
https://jewishinsider.com/2020/12/jews-students-israel-instagram/
After reading that article, I found one on De Castro’s “roots” trip to Spain, which was published in SHU 982:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/HeQ9hQuYchg/m/HQXpxwZnDAAJ
The article shows us what an abysmal job Sephardi institutions have done in preserving our heritage:
https://medium.com/jewish-on-campus/a-day-in-toledo-finding-my-jewish-roots-in-spain-109a57cdd690
It brings to mind the similarly impoverished piece from former Forward writer Josh Nathan-Kazis, which I discussed in the following Jerusalem Post article:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vp5rE42EEjUthm_2XU8tXy8kIwcVrr5fF2nFzOyGpiU/edit
Here is the original Forward article:
Both articles, whatever their authors’ ultimate political leanings, present the abject failure of Sephardim to educate their children in our history and culture and religious values.
For many years the ASF has been at the forefront of erasing the classical Sephardic heritage and supporting the institutional Ashkenazi racism against us; as it continues to promote the “Dead Sephardim” trope, the Arab Jewish Refugee issue, as well as the “Bourekas and Haminados” Sephardischkeit that ultimately trivializes our heritage:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/nW2DNWUl9Dk/m/5oaSDp1sAwAJ
I have discussed the HASBARAH tumult over the California Ethnic Studies Curriculum in the following article on the Ashkenazi-run JIMENA:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/-kLsi6o2ssk/m/JY9NCio7BAAJ
We will of course recall how a young Bari Weiss was involved with The David Project, the radical HASBARAH group that took on the Columbia University Middle Eastern Studies department, as well as producing the documentary “The Forgotten Refugees”:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/hGbojJTkhB4/m/K4kSTje6BQAJ
Here is a 2005 New York Times article that reports on the matter:
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/education/panels-report-on-faculty-at-columbia-spurs-debate.html
As I have repeatedly said, Weiss has been a proud member of the HASBARAH Cancel Culture from the very outset of her career:
It is critical to remember that “The Forgotten Refugees” has been central to JIMENA’s own HASBARAH project:
https://www.jimena.org/resources/forgotten-refugees/
Its curriculum is truly a shameful embarrassment, filled with Orientalist vacuousness; just perfect for the White Jewish Supremacy:
http://journeytothemizrah.org/the-curriculum
It is what I have referred to as White Jewish Intersectionality, which leaves Sephardim alone and humiliated; pawns in the hands of the very Ashkenazi racists who seek to erase our culture.
What we have seen, contrary to the militant unity that seems to be emerging in the African-American intellectual community and its close connection to grassroots activism, is that Sephardim have abdicated control of their own institutions:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/cootgxoI6So
I discussed the “New Sephardim” and their loyal ties to the Ashkenazim who are erasing us in an article on Sina Kahen and the Sephardi Habura:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/Zwr2J9A6j1w/m/kjjkx-u6CAAJ
The Habura is led by Rabbi Joseph Dweck who apparently believes that Sephardim are not “Modern”; as he wrote in his Tradition article on Haym Soloveichik’s “Rupture and Reconstruction”:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/SqFMBYjMMvk/m/HkRU45NQBgAJ
More recently, Yoel Pimentel has analyzed Dweck’s pitifully ignorant attack on the Sephardic heritage and his place in the “New Sephardim” hierarchy:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/PBeSCE9bKY8
Naturally, Kahen has just done a presentation for the ASF:
https://americansephardi.org/event/new-works-wednesdays-with-sina-kahen-2/
There is little question which side of the political fence De Castro and Kahen are on when it comes to the HASBARAH issue.
What is far more troubling, given what we are seeing emerge in the Ashkenazi Neo-Con world that the ASF, JIMENA, and Congregation Shearith Israel have all adopted, is the participation of Yuval Evri and Almog Behar in an ASF series on “Sephardic Thought and Modernity”:
https://americansephardi.org/event/sephardi-thought-and-modernity/
We may also note the participation of Columbia University’s Clemence Boulouque, who has just published a book on the great 19th century Sephardic Humanist Elijah Benamozegh:
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28797
As can be seen in the following article, Boulouque presents Benamozegh in the stifling context of 19th century Ashkenazi thought, rather than in the organic element of the classical Sephardic heritage:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AIfh4E64fg92G25hCdMb1KZ805SZaddK/view?ths=true
It is similar to the way in which Alessandro Guetta deployed the Anti-Sephardic magical thinking of Moshe Idel in his 2009 Benamozegh book:
https://www.amazon.com/Alessandro-Guetta-Philosophy-Kabbalah-Reconciliation/dp/B00SCUQO14
There has been a sea change in the way that academic Jewish scholars now present the Sephardic heritage; a change which can be seen in the Spinozist Steven Nadler’s Yale Jewish Lives biography of Menasseh Ben Israel:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300224108/menasseh-ben-israel
The YJL series is utterly bereft of Sephardim; seeing Jewish culture and history strictly out of an Ashkenazi lens:
https://www.jewishlives.org/collections/the-complete-jewish-lives-collection
Nadler’s sympathies lie not with the rabbi-friend of Rembrandt, but with the heretic lens-grinder who was booted from Menasseh’s Amsterdam Sephardic community:
https://www.amazon.com/Spinoza-Life-Steven-Nadler/dp/0521002931
Here is a typical Nadler article which lionizes the arch-heretic, in the process undermining the complex nature of Sephardic Humanism in its desire to balance Talmudic Judaism and the science and philosophy of Ancient Greece:
https://aeon.co/essays/at-a-time-of-zealotry-spinoza-matters-more-than-ever
It is instructive to compare Nadler’s anti-traditional dogmatics with the work of the superlative Jewish historian Cecil Roth, who also wrote a biography of Menasseh, in addition to his many other works on Sephardic history and culture:
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Menasseh-Ben-Israel-Diplomat/dp/B001W8O1KO
Tellingly, the Roth book is now out of print; the relic of another age when the Sephardic heritage was still valued by most Jews, regardless of their ethnic origin.
The polarization that has now become endemic to the White Jewish Supremacist academy has left Sephardim open to the pervasive racism that has been our lot since the founding the Israel in 1948.
Rather than working to fight the White Jewish Supremacy presented by the ASF and its racist allies, these academics have sought to ally themselves to an organization that stands against Sephardic political interests.
It is indeed a far cry from where activist academics like Cobb and Kendi are in the African-American community, bringing us deeper into the morass that is the contemporary Jewish world.
Where African-American academics see themselves as part of the larger community, Sephardim, and scholars of Sephardic history and culture, remain oblivious to the actual needs of the community.
It has become clear, since I started studying Sephardic culture in 1981 after being trapped in Modern Orthodox hell, that the state of the field has become invisible in the larger burgeoning world of academic Judaic Studies.
The field is leaderless, and has no concern for presenting the values of our heritage in a way that reflects our actual historical experience. It is indeed hard, if not impossible, to find a Sephardic Studies program in any American university.
If any of the scholars are concerned, their cowardly silence tells us that it is all a big charade. Conformity is the order of the day. Never make waves. Keep those fellowships and stipends coming in.
Rather than Sephardic activism, we have a new cadre of scholars who have sought to eviscerate our community by using the usual racist tricks of the Social Science methodologies:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/ggJAFoCD7us/m/llz_Gl0BAgAJ
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/i7GjycvgTh8/m/WXhKM8lgBwAJ
And for that, the White Jewish institutional world has awarded the Anti-Sephardi racists great honors, as we recently saw in the 2020 National Jewish Book Awards:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/0_no6RCwidg/m/ia0c6ATVAwAJ
For all her diligent work in castigating Sephardim as cheats and swindlers, Devi Mays is being feted by the Jewish Women’s Archive program “Jewish Women, Race, and Ethnicity in America” as “our” representative:
White Jewish Supremacy is also alive and well at institutions like Hebrew Union College, which seeks to present itself in the false guise of a pluralistic Judaism fighting racism, while it has no Sephardic representation in its institutional ranks, and has no interest in correcting itself:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/DyNyQeNDSIA/m/tTi-9HmGBgAJ
Over time, as I continue to my bitterly unsuccessful slog through the Jewish institutional world, I have repeatedly seen those who I once called friends abandon the cause of Sephardic continuity in favor of acceptance by the White Jewish Supremacy.
If the price is right, how can you refuse?
Sadly, as we have seen from both the Critical Race Theorists and the Anti-Woke Neo-Cons, this is all to be expected.
The new Alt-Right Binary seeks to divide peoples and cultures and leave us all in sealed ideological ghettos.
Articulating the classical Sephardic heritage in this benighted, and often dangerous, context is a losing proposition because our cosmopolitan heritage and its Religious Humanism is one that rejects Separatism and division.
As long as the Megyn Kellys and Bari Weisses control the discourse that animates the Jewish institutional world, it will be impossible for Sephardim to break through the wall of White Jewish Supremacy; a wall that has forced each and every Sephardi to take a side – a side against the Sephardic tradition.
David Shasha