Especially The Blacks And The Jews Pt.421223467

Nice rejoinder from dNa on my earlier post where I distinguish black antisemitism from black Semitiphilia (WTF? Is that a word??):

Actually, I think it's often the same sector. Jews see that kind of admiration as threatening, because to them it sounds a lot like traditional anti-Semitism, especially when you get into stuff like "Jews only spend money in their community" type stuff. But even when the most anti-Semitic black nationalist starts talking about the Jews, there's this grudging respect, like "you're ruthless, but we wanna be like you and run shit."

But even the idea that Jews "run shit" is based off anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, yeah there are a lot of Jews in high places, but the vast majority of people in high places are white gentile men. Stating that "white men run things" is simply stating the obvious, although don't say it on TV because Fox News will run a clip you you saying that one phrase for the next three months.

I think he's right, in that certainly there is great overlap between the NOI types who think Jews ran the slave-trade and those who hold a begrudging respect. That said, speaking as a guy who grew up around a lot of black nationalists, I didn't really hear a lot of those sorts of conspiracy theories. I heard a bunch of anti-white ones, no doubt. But that whole "Secret History" crap didn't hit me until college. One thing people have to remember is that in the 80s and 90s there was still some tension between the Farrakhan cats and Kwanzaa cats because many of them held him responsible for Malcolm's murder. I knew like one or two people who were NOI when I was a kid--but I knew a ton of Kwanzaa Nationalists.

The point I'm making is that the "gutter religion" crowd isn't always the same as the "be like the Jews" crowd. There's another place this sort of thing comes from--a sense that black people have a preternatural inclination for effing up. The latter probably annoys me more because I am constantly, constantly, constantly exposed to it. Chris Rock--much as I love him--wouldn't have a career if black folks didn't believe that they--more so than other groups--were their worst enemy. The Kwanzaa Nationalists especially believe this. There's probably some antisemitism there, but if you think about (from the perspective of a black nationalist) there's a lot to admire without dipping into antisemitic conspiracy. Obviously the biggest example is Israel--Garvey himself held great admiration for the Zionist Cause.

The Kwanzaa "Kinara" is obviously a straight rip off of the Minorah. The idea of having a language--be it Yiddish or Hebrew--is also another thing that would attract the envy of a Kwanzaa Nationalist. I can remember hustling books for my Dad and brothers coming up to the table and hitting me with the Habari Gani. Now, it's quite possible that some of these same folks held some conspiracy theories. But I think that there are plenty of very real aspects of the Jewish tradition that the black Nationalists will always envy.