You Can’t Hide Your Hate Anymore

Remember that time when all the hate had disappeared?  All the problems solved?  Diversity was in.  Racism out.  Holocaust movies… in.  Antisemitism… out.

Ah yes, those were the good ol’ days.  Pepperidge Farms remembers.

It was the 90s, in case you forgot.  That magical time when everyone seemed to get along.  When the economy seemed just fine.  Our president played the sax.

No wonder there’s so much nostalgia for those innocent times.

Of course, like most magic, it was just a trick on our eyes.  Just as the economy was secretly getting stacked against us all by the big banks, we should all know by now that the utopia we were imagining we were building was a big, fat lie.

For decades, our country, and the world at large, have been able to hide their bubbling racism and antisemitism under the surface.  We were able to hold it down because our methods of mass communication were built to mask reality.  Television, radio, newspapers.  All controlled by the few.  All built to fit into the politically correct world that was increasingly demand they comply with the new utopian rules: no racism.  No hate.  No antisemitism.

And so we were able to pretend.  To act out a play where there were no longer any bad guys.

 

Of course, all of that seems pretty quaint nowadays.  And nothing has revealed the illusion of our utopian past more than the last few weeks: from the war in Gaza to the war in Ferguson, we simply can’t hide from our hate anymore.

I am not talking of what actually happened down on the ground in Gaza and Ferguson.  We can talk about Gaza for years (and we will) and most of us can concede we have no idea what actually happened in that police shooting in Ferguson.

No, I’m not talking about those things.  About specific wars.  About specific incidents.

I’m talking about the reaction.  I’m talking about us.  About them.  About you.

In the 90’s our televisions told us that we had defeated racism, that we were almost at the new romantic utopia.

Now we are beyond the age of the television, in the age when the people control the media.  From Twitter to Facebook to blogs.  The people are no longer hidden behind the highly-polished veneer of mass media.  Now we are openly revealed in all our raw ugliness by social media.

#HitlerWasRight… you may have not heard about that hashtag that didn’t just spread, but trended on Twitter during the war in Gaza… but the Jews noticed.  We stood wide awake, aware more than ever before of our precarious balance in the world.

Then, of course, there were the attacks.  People beaten simply for being Jews.  Synagogues defaced with swastikas.

Stories that may have been hidden in the past, but now, due to social media, we saw immediately and quickly.

And then, of course, there’s Ferguson.  Never in my life have I seen so much blatant racism in my newsfeed.  By people I consider nice, calm, normal.  They are convinced the man deserved it.  They justify the actions by police to “quell” the protests.

Then there are the false images of black men with money in their mouths and guns in their hands:

 

There are the lies being spread.  The complaints that “some white guy died the other day and no one noticed”.  The nonstop attempt to justify the actions of the police in "handling" the protests.

What seems to matter just as much as the war in Gaza and what happened in Ferguson is the world’s reaction.  A reaction that is no longer hidden but out in plain view.

World, you can’t hide your hate anymore.  You can’t pretend you aren’t antisemitic, that you aren’t racist, that you have solved all your problems.

It made no sense when in the 90s, twenty five years after blacks were getting food poured on them for protesting segregated diners, that somehow years of racism in our country had been magically eliminated.  It also made no sense that a few years of popular Holocaust movies would get rid of thousands of years of antisemitism.

No, under the sparkling veneer of mass media, we were stoking our hate in quiet and hidden ways.  Like Orwell said about the British of the 40s, “If, as I suggest, prejudice against Jews has always been pretty widespread in England, there is no reason to think that Hitler has genuinely diminished it. He has merely caused a sharp division between the politically conscious person who realises that this is not a time to throw stones at the Jews, and the unconscious person whose native antisemitism is increased by the nervous strain of the war.”.

In other words, many learned over the years to mask their hate, knowing they would be ostracized.  But in their circles, in their hidden world, it stayed alive.  And when the right moment came, when the right excuse presented itself, and the right channels to communicate opened, they unleashed that hate back into the world.

From Gaza becoming the bigot’s best excuse to start declaring his love of Hitler to Ferguson becoming the rallying cry of every American sick of the black man actually acting like he deserves a part of our country… these are simply the revelations of the hate that has been bubbling under the surface of our world since Cain killed Abel.

 

What will it take for hate to be eliminated?  Will we ever truly be able to rid the earth of antisemitism and racism?  Are we doomed to continue the same cycle over and over?

I don’t know.

But I do know one thing: at least now we can no longer hide from it.  At least now we have to face up to it.  At least now we need to be honest.

Because we are forced.  Because a media controlled by the people will reveal the nature of the people.

Look at it, world, and stop hiding.  You can’t hide your hate anymore, and those of us for love, for equality… we won’t be fooled again.


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17 responses to “You Can’t Hide Your Hate Anymore”

  1. Eliezer Abrahamson Avatar

    As usual, you make some valid points in this post, but…

    I can’t speak for your newsfeed, but the case in Ferguson is hardly a good example of white racism. Obviously, I have no way of knowing whether the police officer acted correctly in shooting Michael Brown. And I will admit that, from a distance at least, the tactics being taken by the police to deal with the riots certainly seem excessive.

    At the same time, the evidence so far seems to clearly indicate that Brown had committed a violent crime literally minutes before the confrontation with police that left him dead. In my mind, this is more than sufficient reason to give the police the benefit of the doubt in claiming that that Brown attempted to take the police officer’s weapon. If the reports are correct (and they certainly appear to be), Brown had very good reason to think that he was being sought by police, and was willing to use force to achieve his goals.

    In my mind, this puts the conflict between, on the one hand, a violent criminal and his supporters, and, on the other hand, for all appearances, a normal American police force. It is possible that further news will change those facts, but until it does so I will give the police the benefit of the doubt.

    Quite frankly, to do otherwise is insane. There are often conflicts between violent people and those stand a defense of the innocent, and we often have no way of knowing with certainty exactly what happened in such a conflict. In such a situation, it is simply crazy to give the benefit of doubt in favor of the violent and against the protectors.

    Which is indeed remarkably similar to the situation with Gaza and the IDF.

    1. Elad Nehorai Avatar

      I highly recommend you read more of the news coming out of Ferguson, in terms of how they’re dealing with the peaceful protestors and the press. It’s pretty shocking.

      1. Eliezer Abrahamson Avatar

        I referred to that in my first paragraph. However, again, there has also been a lot of violence (and looting, arson, and vandalism) on the part of “protestors”, often targeting the police. I don’t envy the job of the police in restoring order in the area, and I have yet to see any real reason to question their intentions nor even, generally speaking, their actions.

        1. "M" Avatar
          “M”

          I’d be … interested in what you have to say about this now.

          I think.

          1. Eliezer Abrahamson Avatar

            I’m not sure what you are looking for. I assume you have read all the comments I have already posted on this discussion. What more is there to say?

    2. bat Sarah Avatar
      bat Sarah

      Remember though, he isn’t talking about what actually happened, but about the reaction by people who are coming out of their racist closets now, just as anti-Semites are opening up.

      1. Eliezer Abrahamson Avatar

        I understand that, which is why I began my comment by stating that I can’t speak for his news feed. I don’t follow any such news feed (I rarely look at my Facebook feed, and never my Twitter feed), so I don’t know what kinds of nonsense might be posted there. (Though outright racism would really surprise me.)

        However, the details that Elad provides don’t really support his contention that his feed is suddenly filled with “blatant racism.” Is it really racist to say that a violent criminal who was shot in a confrontation with a police officer “deserved” it? If we assume the police officer is an honest man, and there is absolutely no reason not to, then the fellow attempted to steal his gun! If I did that, and I got shot, I would certainly “deserve” it. It certainly wouldn’t be anti-Semitic to say so, even though I’m a Jew.

        Similar issues arise with the justifications for the police response to the protests. The problem is that it isn’t just peaceful protesters. There are also violent rioters, engaging in looting, arson, and vandalism, and in direct violence against the police. The area is a war zone, complete with burned out buildings, gunfire in the streets, and Molotov cocktails. Bringing order to a warzone isn’t easy (especially if the population sees you as the bad guy, as irrational as that may be), and it isn’t surprising that some of the actions of the police come across heavy handed.

        It is certainly possible that the police have made any number of errors in handling the situation (though I haven’t seen any clear examples of this), but I doubt any of the people complaining would have handled it any better.

        1. bat Sarah Avatar
          bat Sarah

          Ah I see. I wasn’t aware that that’s what you were saying; thought you were just arguing the point of whether Brown was innocent or not.
          So I see what you’re saying with the Ferguson case, but anti-Semitism has definitely been trending as a guise for pro-Palestinian-ism.

          1. Eliezer Abrahamson Avatar

            It is certainly true that that a lot of anti-Semites have found the rising popularity of the pro-Palestinian movement to be an opportunity to be more open in their hatred of Jews. And there is no real question that a significant portion of the support for that movement, and opposition to Israel generally, is rooted in anti-Semitism (whether acknowledged or repressed). It also appears that the popularity of the movement may be evoking, and certainly legitimizing, anti-Semitism even among people who were not anti-Semitic previously.

            All that being said, I think there is another, more basic, issue that lies at the root of the broad support for the pro-Palestinian movement, especially among “liberals” and even Jews, that has little to do, at least directly, with anti-Semitism, and more to do with secular utopianism. This utopianism forms the basis of much, if not all, of what passes for the “liberalism” (or progressivism, socialism, etc. – pick your favorite term), that is, not coincidentally, the overwhelmingly dominant political ideology of secularism. One of the most basic elements of this world view is that the use of force by a Western government, whether by the military or the police, is always, without exception, a failure of the government. The assumption is that there is always a better solution, and resorting to violence is therefore always assumed to be the result of an actual desire to do violence.

            Of course, on a rational level, many of these people acknowledge that there are situations where violence is unavoidable. This perception of the world is, nevertheless, deeply rooted on an emotional, gut level, and deeply colors how they see events, especially when they have no personal involvement. Thus, for example, in any case of ambiguity, where it is unclear if the police, military, or government were justified in using force, the automatic assumption is that it was almost certainly unjustified. In any situation where the use of force was indeed found to be unnecessary, even if only after the fact, the automatic assumption is that the use of force was motivated by ill intent and/or ulterior motives. If the use of force has unfortunate consequences for others, such as bystanders or civilians, the automatic assumption is that it was excessive and unnecessary, and that the police or military simply didn’t care, or even deliberately targeted those innocent victims.

            There is a general bias against the people who serve in the police and military, that they are generally of a violent disposition that is restrained, just barely, only by the fear of punishment if they get caught. Thus, a police officer or soldier is never to be given the benefit of the doubt in any such situation.

            This is what I alluded to in my initial comment about the situation in Ferguson actually being similar to the conflict in Gaza. In both cases, the protesters and media are operating with the basic assumption that the police/media are inclined towards unnecessary and excessive violence.

            Thus, if an unarmed man/innocent civilian was killed, obviously the police officer/military force was in the wrong, and probably was motivated by hatred.

            If the police/military use force that, to the untrained and uninformed eyes of onlookers and reporters, seems unnecessary or excessive, then obviously it was unnecessary and excessive. Official explanations are greeted with open skepticism, even when the general circumstances support their plausibility. Even if the officials concede that an error was made, this is perceived as a likely cover-up of a deliberate misuse of violence. This is true even if there is no evidence or previous history to support such a claim.

            I could actually go on at much greater length on this topic, but this comment is already ridiculously long. (I once wrote a blog post touching on this basic issue: http://shesileizeisim.blogspot.com/2012/05/evil-of-unpleasant-realities-why.html

        2. ColorsOfAlgebra Avatar
          ColorsOfAlgebra

          There is an immigration problem in Africa and North Africa, there has always been.

    3. ColorsOfAlgebra Avatar
      ColorsOfAlgebra

      What was violent in the image of Mike brown in the store? Talking back? The clerk attacked Mike Brown.

  2. Lawrence Kestenbaum Avatar

    I can’t argue with the specifics, but in the grand scheme of things, I think you are unduly pessimistic about racism and antisemitism.

    Just for example, there is absolutely no comparison between the vicious, violent racism of Mississippi in 1965 and the subtle, political racism of Mississippi today.

    I don’t want to minimize or sugarcoat how hard it is to be black/poor/powerless in a place like Mississippi in 2014, but the constant threat of racist violence from random white people is gone. The quantity of racist violence is down by something like 99%. It’s misleading to say that nothing has changed.

    That being said, things are plainly moving in the wrong direction right now.

    In the New Republic has a cover story in the current issue about “The New Racism”. It documents what we already know: in every Southern state, the Republican Party has become the white party; in the Deep South, it gets the support of 90% of white voters. The biracial coalition of the southern Democratic Party has been blown out of existence. New Republican majorities in every Southern state legislatures have run roughshod over the interests of black and poor people.

    Why did this happen? This post is already way too long, but in short, I think talk radio played a huge role in destigmatizing racist attitudes. Social media came along later.

  3. The Mad Jewess Avatar

    I agree with most of what you say, but Ferguson? Racism? How so?
    Young, black males are the neo-racists now. Beating Jews in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, murdering, raping and robbing whites all over America.

    I see the racism, 24/7 and the majority of it aint coming from “Evil” whitey anymore.

    1. Lance Taylor Avatar
      Lance Taylor

      An elderly Vietnamese couple in St. Louis were attacked and the man killed, knock out games by teenagers, was this a hate crime or just an excusable incident done by underprivileged victims of their environment?

    2. ColorsOfAlgebra Avatar
      ColorsOfAlgebra

      The so-called abolition of slavery immediately and dramatically affected Southern society. Immediately after the war, Southern legislatures began to adopt “black
      codes” to insure that the former
      slaves would continue to provide labor.

  4. Jeffrey Dowling Avatar

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