Don’t Conflate Racism and Anti-Semitism

[Hat tip to @thelonius for alluding to this idea.]

In spite of the great strides this country has made regarding racism, some people (mainly blacks) decided they would exploit the racism that still existed and hold the entire society responsible for it. One definition of racism from The American Heritage Dictionary defines racism in this way:

The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others; discrimination or prejudice based on race; the belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes.

We’ll use this definition when we discuss anti-Semitism to compare and contrast.

The focus on racism in recent years has been through the study of Critical Race Theory. I’m not going to go into the history of Critical Race Theory; suffice it to say that it has existed for many years as a “topic of study” in academia and finally graduated to mainstream society in recent years. The results of those studies and activities essentially blamed all of us for the perceived lingering effects of past racism: we may not be conscious of this condition, but nonetheless we are trapped in its belief system; we are practically born with it. And there is no way to free ourselves from this mindset. Even worse, if a person (usually white) criticizes a black person for just about anything, the critic is a racist. If a violent black organization is blamed for their actions, like Black Life Matters, it’s a racist accusation. If almost any situation is remotely related to anything or anyone who is black, and people criticize it, their criticism is racist.

One of the leaders of this movement has suffered severe damage to his reputation. Ibram X. Kendi and his Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University has been discredited on several counts for his mismanagement. The situation is being investigated by the university, but I suspect that the “truth” about his work may also be revealed. He’s basically a person who created a name, persona and capitalized on the work of others, writing books and giving speeches and seminars to anyone who would attend. And if you have ever heard a talk by Kendi, you’d understand that his scholarship is incoherent, weak and foolish.

I also believe that at some level, people will do some serious self-examination (which many of us have already done) and realize that we are not racists by any reasonable definition. At some point the CRT fad will fade away. It appeared at a moment in time when people could use the academy to create a false reputation, and it’s no longer relevant. When people call others racist, it’s a kind of virtue signaling.

So, what makes anti-Semitism different from racism? And why should the two systems not be conflated?

A definition of anti-Semitism was created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance :

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

Other definitions include a hatred based on race, but this doesn’t work. Jews are from countries and races all over the world.

The situation for Jews is also more complex than racism. Anti-Semitism has been with us for thousands of years. It comes and goes in different countries, seeming to go dormant for periods of time, then bursts out with vehemence and violence. Often a crisis will either trigger or lay the ground work for exploiting latent anti-Semitism; Germany’s financial crisis before World War II certainly helped Hitler advance his plans. And most recently, the ongoing fighting during the last few years between Hamas and Israel has been the stimulus for creating an oppressor/oppressed scenario. A false history has been created and widely accepted for the Palestinians and helps Hamas take the role of the oppressed, and Israel’s success as a state creates the image of the oppressor. And following October 7, the sides have become even more polarized.

This is where racism should be viewed differently than anti-Semitism. In this country, racism has been reduced significantly from the past (regardless of what the Kendis of the world will tell you). Racism should continue to decrease, although the CRT advocates may have actually increased resentments toward non-blacks for their insistence on calling all of us racists. But I choose to believe that in spite of their efforts to explain and justify Critical Race Theory, we will continue to mature as a country; racism will decline as people cross cultural borders. People will realize that CRT was a cultural fad that didn’t accurately describe them, and will abandon the premise. It will die a slow and justifiable death.

Anti-Semitism is different. Although Jews have come to believe that they have lived in historic times where Jews were accepted members of society, the “disease” lies in waiting. With the right circumstances, it will raise its ugly head once more. Society is far too wedded to finding scapegoats, identifying oppressors and the oppressed. In addition, Jews are often successful in their professions and have been, for example, Nobel Prize winners. But people worry that we have succeeded by manipulating our circumstances, taking advantage of others and are guilty of many other immoral practices that I won’t repeat here.

Will there ever be a time when anti-Semitism is eliminated? Unlike racism, the existence of which will likely become insignificant over time, probably not. But when it does start to show up, we need to be paying attention. We need to watch for the signs, the use of anti-Jew language and tropes, the attacks on the Jewish community and institutions. We need to make sure that we are not explaining away these signs, but stopping long enough to observe and study them. And if they continue to occur, we must call them out and move to stop them.

Nobody else will do it for us.