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Cancel Culture’s Anti-Semitism Problem | OPINION

Nick Cannon has been a purveyor of cancel culture and of Anti-Semitism (Photo Credit: AP)

The following is an opinion contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.

Our world has been turned upside down. The supposed staunch defenders of civil rights and equality have engaged in the senseless and primitive practices of name-calling and public shaming. Innocuous statements, such as, “I think that the most qualified person should get the job,” have been labeled as “racist.” Menial Halloween costumes have been targeted for “cultural appropriation” and baseless character attacks have been waged against those who have mistakenly used racial slurs or have expressed dissenting opinions on the issue surrounding race.

I obviously condemn the hatred that is racism. I only point to the repeated, tactless, and unsubstantiated use of the term, which only serves to render the term useless. While racism has been overextended beyond its meaning, another hate has been ignored: Anti-Semitism. 

While people this summer staged massive protests against racial injustices, anti-Semitism has been allowed to rise with no public reckoning. Protests as large as 200,000 were permitted, while Orthodox Jews prayer services have been forbidden. Even the Black Lives Matter movement itself has a tarnished history with anti-Semitism, in the past referring to Israel as “an apartheid state.”

Unfortunately, this anti-Semitism has also been present at our own University. 

In pages of The Daily Princetonian, students at Princeton have equated Adolf Hitler’s evil, criminality, and acts of genocide with Woodrow Wilson’s racism and bigotry. The student writer continued to employ examples of Hitler and quote him to establish the main premise of her argument, which was to defend the removal of Woodrow Wilson’s name. Now, while Wilson’s racism deserves criticism, his bigotry and segregationist attitudes are not of equal caliber to Hitler’s anti-Semitism, which included mass murder of six million Jews. Six million. This needless comparison with Hitler reduces the magnitude of criminality and evil that has not only sent a disturbing ripple across the globe but has instilled a sorrowful point in Jewish history and Jewish families. 

In yet another instance of Anti-Semitism, David Esterlit, a candidate for Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president, was deried for his service in the Israeli Defense Forces. The piece argued that Esterlit’s service in the Israeli military, a requirement for Israeli citizens, was morally problematic and, thus, rendered Esterlit ineligible as a leader in USG. Is that really so? Esterlit’s service stationed him defending vulnerable civilians and migrant workers from ISIS terrorists. What is morally wrong with that? 

Fundamentally, students at Princeton University are comfortable with the vilification and degradation of supporters of Israel, and they are fine when a sense of guilt is imposed on the pro-Israel community based on the feign premise that Israel commits human rights violations. 

These instances highlight an important double standard. While many have been hard at work “canceling” those whose comments have been misinterpreted as racist, those same people have been silent towards purveyors of anti-Semitism. They have taken little to no action against these harmful statements and acts of anti-Semitism, or they have turned a blind eye to the situation. 

The problem is larger than Princeton. For instance, after Nick Cannon’s delivered an anti-Semitic rant, celebrities such as Charlamagne tha God tried to defend his statements. Democratic representatives, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib, have also expressed anti-Semitic remarks without repercussion. Rep. Omar implied that Jews are “buying” support for Israel. She also suggested that support for Israel constitutes “allegiance” to a foreign country, invoking the dual loyalty trope that has been used to persecute and harm Jews. Prominent Democrats have also joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel in an effort to eradicate the country on grounds of alleged “human rights issues in its conflict with Palestinians.” In our perverse world, Rep. Tlaib has admonished members of Congress who don’t support the BDS movement. 

Josh Malina, who is a Jewish Actor, tweeted on September 11th 2020, “Why’s it so hard to get cancel-culture on the line when the problem is anti-Semitism?” I believe that such hateful and divisive rhetoric is difficult for them to condemn because it has made the progressive wing of the Democratic party its host.  

These assertions and acts have either been ignored or dismissed by party leaders. Now some members have pleaded to those in the party to refrain from using anti-Semetic rhetoric. The House Democrats even released a statement condemning such rhetoric in the party. However, the statement was insufficient. For one, it was generic and it failed hold members, like Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib, accountable for expressing anti-Semitism. Despite her comments, Rep. Omar still sits on Foreign Affairs Committee. While anti-Semitism has also peaked its head on the right, the left has been uniquely guilty of extreme hypocrisy. 

A recent Daily Princetonian piece opened by lamenting that “Anti-Semitism has become a tired theme of daily life for Jewish students like me at the University.” This should be a wake-up call for all of us. So, I ask, why are we comfortable condemning racism but not anti-Semitism? Aren’t they both morally wrong? Recent events have demonstrated the conscious duplicity of cancel-culture that the left has unleashed around the nation and in our own community. These incidents that I have mentioned ought to be taken seriously. If anti-Semitism is not actively “shunned” and “canceled” with the same fervor as racism, then we are welcoming in anti-Semitism as a norm. It is a sorry state, but with renewed commitments to genuine equality, we can make things better.  

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