by Sam Hamod
No,
this is not an anti-semitic article or an unjustified attack on
anyone—it is an attempt to clarify what’s going on with African
American demands for reparations for slavery and its aftermath, the
attacks from the David Horowitz, Elie Weisel and “The Holocaust
Corporation.” This article also examines why Philip Roth in his
latest novel, THE HUMAN STAIN, likens African Americans to apes and
why John Entine is bringing up that old cliché that African American
athletes are what they are and excel because of their genetic
breeding (something akin to Hitler’s attack on African Americans
after the German Olympics of 1930s). And, why it is that the U.S.
media is taking a hands-off approach to these dastardly and inhumane
racial slurs?
Why are such writers as
Roth, Weisel, Entine and other Jews suddenly turning into racists—or
have they always been racists but until now been afraid to come out
in the public with it? Do they think that by attacking African
Americans that the other white supremacists will forget about them
and focus on African Americans, Farrakhan, Latinos and Arabs and let
them alone? Perhaps.
On the other hand, there are
Jewish writers such as Anthony Lewis, Steve Kowit and Naom Chomsky
who want nothing to do with this new Nazi-ism of some of their
fellow Jews. Shelby Foote, who passed himself off as a plain
white southerner, has now made it plain that he is a Jew, which is
fine; but I, and I’m sure others, were shocked when he likened the
Ku Klux Klan to the French Resistance of WW II !! Scott Simon of
NPR recently inferred that though Daniel Boone and others, who were
anti-Mexican racists and the spiritual children of Cortez, at the
Alamo, should be admired because they followed their principles and
their orders; doesn’t this sound like the Jews should have admired
the SS troops who killed them because they believed in their
principles? !! Have these men such as Roth, Horowitz, Simon, Entine
and Weisel lost their minds—or are they just echoing a long felt
feeling that may have pervaded many Jews that blacks, “schvartza”,
were and still are inferior to God’s “chosen people?” Perhaps the
rise of white supremacists has allowed these men to join the other
“white men” in condemning and attacking African Americans.
Before we go further, let me
explain, I am not African American and the hue of my skin is white.
First, let us understand
that over 5 times as many African Americans died in the American
slave trade as died in the holocaust. But let it also be known that
among those millions executed, many were not Jews but were Poles,
Russians, other Slavic peoples and French, Catholics, Protestants
and atheists. However, the
Holocaust Corporation, as I and many Jews call it, has decided that
the holocaust that happened against Africans who were the
forefathers of our present African Americans, the indigenous
Americans, also called the Native Americans, Amer-Indians, etc., and
the driving out of 8 million Palestinians from their homes and
their continued brutality at the hands of Israel, should not be
called “holocausts” because the Jewish “Holocaust Corporation” has
deemed only Jews could suffer a “holocaust.”
Not only that, but if anyone
raises a question about this holocaust corporation or against Israel
or any Jewish writer, they are called “anti-semites.” This is
another distortion of the language and of truth. Thus, not only has
this “holocaust corporation” usurped the term “holocaust” for
themselves exclusively, but they also have stolen the linguistic
definition of “semitic.”
ACTUALLY, SEMITIC IS A LANGUAGE GROUP, NOT A RACIAL GROUP, IN FACT,
IF THERE IS AN ORIGINAL GROUP, IT’S THE ABYSSINIANS WHO WERE
SPEAKING AMHARIC BEFORE THERE WAS A HEBREW LANGUAGE; AT THAT TIME
THERE ARE THE ARAMAIC SPEAKERS, WHO WERE ARABS AND PEOPLE LIKE
ABRAHAM, AND THEN LATER JEWS, THEN CAME, AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME,
ARABIC AND HEBREW------ THESE ARE THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES. ONCE
AGAIN, SEMITIC IS NOT A RACIAL GROUP; IT IS A LANGUAGE FAMILY MADE
UP OF ARAMAIC, AMHARIC, ARABIC AND HEBREW—IT IS NOT A TERM FOR JEWS
ALONE.
Also, for the sake of accuracy,
Abraham spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew—so much for Hebrew being God’s
language!
Now we come to David
Horowitz and his recent ad in the Brown University Student
Newspaper in which he gave his reasons for denying reparations to
African Americans. In his allegations, he did not address any of
the real reasons that African Americans sought reparations—namely,
the destruction of large families who were brought to America as
slaves and then split up, the deaths of so many during the passage
to America, the years of slavery and brutality visited upon African
Americans, then, the aftermath of slavery which was harmful
discrimination that went on, and continues to this day in the
workplace, in social areas, in the media and in educational testing
and in educational and professional profiling against African
Americans (through red-lining of loans, through racial profiling
by police, through discrimination in court decisions, etc.).
If Jewish survivors of the
Hitlerian holocaust should be compensated, Japanese Americans
compensated, Native Americans compensated, why not African Americans
whose suffering was much longer, more devastating, and more cruel
than the other ethnic groups who were compensated? Horowitz never
answers this question in his attacks on African Americans and their
quest for compensation. Incidentally, though he cries about the
holocaust, Horowitz never sheds one tear for the suffering of the
Palestinians whose land was taken for his holocaust survivors to
create Israel. Weisel, Roth, Horowitz all use double standards in
their moral judgments; thus, from their writings, it appears that
they believe that anyone who is not a Jew should be seen as inferior
(except for the white supremacists who scare the hell out of most
decent Jews, and maybe even Weisel and company).
But, since most of the
media is owned by Zionist leaning owners, these media monsters of
venom and hatred, like Horowitz, Weisel and other pro-zionist
columnists will continue to have their way with little opposition
allowed in the mass media because of the Zionist control the media.
Sarnoff of NBC, Paley of CBS, Goldensohn of ABC and Friendly of NPR,
and the families that own and control the NY Times and The
Washington Post were, and are, strongly pro-zionist, and in most
cases were of Ashkenazim backgrounds (so they had little cultural
understanding for the Sephardic Jews or Arabs who actually populated
the Middle East and Palestine for the past 3000 years).
Why is it that Elie Weisel,
who won a Nobel Prize for his “humanitarian work” has been at the
forefront of stopping African Americans and Palestinians from
claiming their just place as “holocaust victims?” The phrase,
“Never Again” that is the motto of the Holocaust Museum is supposed
to be for mankind—but somehow, it pertains only to Jews and to the
holocaust corporation and its supporters. So we ask, how hollow is
“Never Again” if it applies only to one ethnic group, when suffering
is more widespread and allegedly this museum was to be a boon to
mankind, not just for those who suffered in the holocaust.
But then again, history is
strange. Often the poor whites in the south were more cruel to the
blacks than the wealthier whites, because these poor whites
identified with the richer and more prominent whites and they felt
they were carrying out their wishes because of the southern rhetoric
used by so many of the wealthier southern whites. This does not
excuse the wealthier whites, even to this day. Sadly enough, Ted
Turner had a message at Thanksgiving some years back at the Atlanta
Airport to the effect that he missed the days of “My Old Kentucky
Home” and he has had the music from GONE WITH THE WIND played as a
memento to the “old south”, two insults and hurts to African
Americans. Look at Scott Simon, never allowing on such articulate
experts on the Middle East such as Edward Said or myself on his
weekend programs because we speak with no accent, don’t lose our
temper, don’t shout and are effective at conveying the Arab,
Palestinian and Islamic message about unfairness in the Middle
East. Scott and I belonged to the Watergate Health Club and we
often spoke, but though I requested it, he would never invite me on
his programs though he knew of my status as a professor, former
Director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC and a scholar on
the Middle East.
It is the same when you turn
on NPR programs, it has become the Shelby Foote, Ken Burns view of
history assisted by Gates. A friend of mine saw the “documentary”
about Gen. Stonewall Jackson, his response was that it was so
overloaded with sentiment that he almost forgot (though he’s black)
that Jackson was fighting to defend slavery! It is clear that NPR is
not for all of us, but for a chosen few such as Scott Simon, Shelby
Foote, Ken Burns, Daniel Shorr—where are the African Americans, the
Arab Americans, the Latino Americans, the Native Americans on the
daily and weekly shows? Certainly we have many trained in
journalism and broadcasting, but we cannot break the monopoly; not
even for commentary or those little ditties that complain about the
world of pots and pans and about “how I lost my virginity at 17”
etc. etc. ad nauseum, when there are more important issues to deal
with in racism in jazz, racism in politics, racism in education and
testing, and so much more--but these weaklings chuckle it off as,
"we need a little humor"--which is true, but then again, they are
supposed to be "news" not entertainment. Also, why is it that they
don't have an African American speaking about racism in Africa, or
an Arab also reporting on the problems between Palestinians and
Israel (why do 90% of these reporters "just happen" to be Jewish?)
Certainly, there must be some other qualified, educated broadcasters
in America.
Whether it be Salon.com,
which features Horowitz and his ilk, NBC, Harpers, NY Times, NPR,
it's all the same, politics by Scott Simon and Daniel Shorr on
weekends, the "freedom of speech" often of hate-mongers
or politicians from the far right, followed by some tepid "centerists"
allowed to allegedly "balance things out."--while those of us who
could truly balance things out are kept off the air. As one
commentator put it, "the elitists in the U.S. media see blacks and
Arabs as the same, it's just that the Arabs are sand-niggers and
the blacks are
jungle-niggers." If they didn't see us this way, why would they
treat our people and our concerns as badly as they do?
FREEDOM OF
SPEECH Ah, that's an interesting idea,
one that's preached about continually in the media when they want to
have their position heard--but if you disagree with the editorial
position of a television on newspapers outlet--you'll rarely, if
ever, be heard from. Yes, you may have freedom to speak your mind,
but you certainly won't get heard through the major media because
they won't put you on the air or allow your material to be printed
in their pages. The problem is much like that in ANIMAL FARM by
George Orwell, "some are more equal than others." This group, that
includes people like Horowitz, Weisel, Fox of the B'nai Brith, Roth,
Entine, are "more equal " than the rest of us.
As one scholar put
it, "Do you think the NY Times would ever run an anti-holocaust
compensation ad? But you know they'd run one that was against
compensation for African Americans." Do you think they'd run an ad
showing Israeli atrocities against Palestinian children and their
funerals? Let's get serious; freedom of speech is a ploy to protect
those who are in power against those who disagree with them; it
keeps them in power over the rest of us who have no major media
power. Major media power is what gives you political power in the
world.
The Lutherans point
out that there are "sins of commission and sins of omission."
These major media outlets and their lackeys, the Horowitz', Weisel's
etc. commit, and the rest are excluded--thus, they are guilty of the
sin of omission by not allowing our voices to be published or
heard. Thus, they are the ones who are destroying the true intent
of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights that speaks of "Freedom
of Speech;" just as the southerners have always ignored the Bill of
Rights and basic Christianity when it came to blacks by not allowing
them to be seen as a full human being!
The other problem
we face in the U.S. at this time is that there aren't many Helen
Thomas' or Mike Wallace's or Lowell Bermann's around--most of the
current crop of "journalists" don't have the guts to really go after
injustices--they'd rather be invited to a politician's dinner table,
as is the case with so many Washington correspondents, play tennis
with the president, as was the case with several tv correspondents,
or be invited "down to the ranch" as is going on now with the Bush
administration.
Martin Luther King,
Schwerner, Goodman and all those black and white must be turning
over in their graves at this time with this new racism that is
flourishing in America. It is not just from those who speak with
racist tones, but also those who keep the true voices out of
circulation in the mass media--why weren't there more real jazz
musicians on Ken Burns' show, why Stanley Crouch and not Ahmad Jamal
or Oscar Peterson or Ishmael Reed--why so much of that Gatesian type
musician, Wynton Marsalis; every good trumpet player knows that
Wynton is fantastic technically, but that he can't even blow in the
same room as Wallace Roney on trumpet or his brother Branford on
sax. So whether it's politics unmasked, or politics as covered in
cultural shows by exclusion, it is the same. Thus, it was just that
the U.S. was kicked off the UN Human Rights Commission and even
kicked off the UN Narcotics Control Commission (because we've been
remiss in both areas).
I have often been
embarrassed when America has chided and criticized other nations for
their racial and human rights violations--because, though we may not
be as bad as some, we are no angels in our behavior toward our
minorities and we often turn one minority against another in order
to allow the ruling group to stay in power; this is often done
through the media. We have also now shown a proper representation
in our media of important stories or ethnic groups. In the present
situation, the rights of African Americans to have compensation for
their years of suffering, past and present, has been given short
shrift by the media and the media and many of its leading spokesmen
have even spoken against these just reparations. It is doubly sad
that so many of these spokesmen are Jewish, they use Hitler's
methods against African Americans and against Palestinians and
excuse it by saying, "we've suffered--don't tell me about your
suffering because it's not as bad."; bah, humbug.
As they used to say in the
60s, "IT IS TIME."
by courtesy & © 2001 Sam Hamod
by the same author: