Martin Luther King Would Be Repulsed By Black Anti-Semitism

Jewish Press ^ | 5-7-08 | Clarence B. Jones with Joel Engel

[SJackson]

Earlier this month, at a Los Angeles event for the national African-American fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, the keynote speaker launched into an anti-Semitic tirade – directed at the fraternity’s guest of honor. The shocking episode shows just how far we’ve strayed from the original vision of the civil rights movement – and how far we have yet to travel to realize that vision.

The guest of honor, Daphna Ziman, an Israeli-American woman, had just received the Tom Bradley Award for generous philanthropy and public service. But instead of praise, the Rev. Eric Lee berated her. “The Jews,” he claimed, “have made money on us in the music business and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us.” (Mr. Lee would later apologize to Ms. Ziman.)

It was bad enough that the event took place on April 4, the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Even more galling, Mr. Lee is the president-CEO of the L.A. branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Foundation – the very civil-rights organization co-founded by the slain civil-rights leader.

Martin would have been repelled by Mr. Lee’s remarks. I was Martin’s lawyer and one of his closest advisers, and I can say with absolute certainty that Martin abhorred anti-Semitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism.

“There isn’t anyone in this country more likely to understand our struggle than Jews,” Martin told me. “Whatever progress we’ve made so far as a people, their support has been essential.”

Martin was disheartened that so many blacks could be swayed by Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam and other black separatists, rejecting his message of nonviolence and grumbling about “Jew landlords” and “Jew interlopers” – even “Jew slave traders.”

The resentment and anger displayed toward people who offered so much support for civil rights was then nascent. But it has only festered and grown over four decades. Today, black-Jewish relations have arguably grown worse, not better.

For that, Martin would place fault principally on the shoulders of black leaders such as Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson – either for making anti-Semitic statements, inciting anti-Semitism (including violence), or failing to condemn overt anti-Semitism within the black community.

When American cities were burning in the summers before he died, Martin listened to any number of young blacks holding matches blame Jewish landlords or Jewish store-owners in the inner city – no matter that Jews were a minority of landlords and store owners.

He asked them, Who else might have bought the buildings that we lived in and rented us apartments? Who else was willing to come in and open stores and sell us the things we needed? Where were these Negroes with money who’d abandoned their communities? And if blacks had bought those businesses and buildings, would they have charged less for rent and bread?

As Martin wrote in 1967:

Negroes nurture a persistent myth that the Jews of America attained social mobility and status solely because they had money. It is unwise to ignore the error for many reasons. In a negative sense it encourages anti-Semitism and overestimates money as a value. In a positive sense, the full truth reveals a useful lesson.

Jews progressed because they possessed a tradition of education combined with social and political action. The Jewish family enthroned education and sacrificed to get it. The result was far more than abstract learning. Uniting social action with educational competence, Jews became enormously effective in political life.

To Martin, who believed the pursuit of excellence would trump adversity, Jewish success should, and could, be used as a blueprint and inspiration for blacks’ own success rather than as an incitement to bitterness.

Any blacks who subscribe to the views represented in Mr. Lee’s speech would do well to heed the words and deeds of the man whose name and legacy they claim to represent.

Clarence Jones was Martin Luther King’s personal attorney and close adviser.

[epow]

For that, Martin would place fault principally on the shoulders of black leaders such as Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson – either for making anti-Semitic statements, inciting anti-Semitism (including violence), or failing to condemn overt anti-Semitism within the black community.

He forgot to include Rev. Wright, Barrak Hussein Obama, and the majority of what passes for Afro-American leadership today. The Reverend MLK represented the authentic Afro-American Christian community, IMHO today's Afro-American "Reverends" are as phony as a $3 bill.

[SJackson]

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[SJackson]

He forgot to include Rev. Wright, Barrak Hussein Obama, and the majority of what passes for Afro-American leadership today.

Yes, but he was writing about a specific incident.

[DragonMarine]

But wasn’t it the A-Rabs who were the slave traders...not the jews?

[justiceseeker93]

We have had previous stories on the Daphna Ziman incident on FR before (including a link to a video of her), but it's a good idea to remind people of this story of a typical Jewish liberal getting a "wake-up call."

The Jewish community as a whole has been turning more conservative gradually, and that movement will hopefully be accelerated by the apparent coronation of Barack Obama as the Dem candidate. Look for John McCain, almost by default, to pull in at least 40 percent of the Jewish vote in November.

[rdb3]

Earlier this month, at a Los Angeles event for the national African-American fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, the keynote speaker launched into an anti-Semitic tirade – directed at the fraternity’s guest of honor.

Shameful! That's my fraternity and I hadn't heard anything about this.

[justiceseeker93]

There were only a handful of Jewish slave owners in the pre-Civil War American South (the whole US had a a very small percentage of Jews at the time) and I'm unaware of any Jewish slave traders. My intuitive guess is that those very few Jewish slaveholders generally treated their slaves more humanely than usual for that time and place.

[Mark was here]

Most of the slaves went to the middle east where the men were castrated the women used for sex, and any child born was instantly killed. Such is the wonderful ways of Islam.

[ubaldus]

Your excellent article is read on this forum by people who are mostly agree with you anyway. Has it reached Mr. Lee, has it reached Kappa Alpha Psi and the WIDE BLACK audience affected by the ORIGINAL Mr. Lee speech? If not, these are words spent in vain. Mr. Lee's words has resonated, and the presence of Jewish people in the audience (who hardly responded) “validated” his speech - while his “apology” is not heard by his intended audience. This is cheap and very common tactic, but the Jewish community seems to be unprepared for it.

[justiceseeker93]

Ping!

[Zionist Conspirator]

MLK Jr. was a man of the Left. If he supported Zionism in his day it was because at that time American liberalism did so (though the world left was as anti-Israel then as it is now). One cannot say with certainty that today he would support Israel or oppose abortion based on his position forty years ago (before Stonewall and Roe v. Wade).

I am afraid that people who disassociate King from today's Black radicals are being a bit naive. He was not a Fundamentalist (though his father was) and his religion was based entirely on social activism. I doubt that he ever preached a salvational or conversionary sermon in his life. His theological writings are online and can be read by anyone.

It is ironic that so many Jews--even Orthodox Jews--identify with King. One would think that Jews would know what it feels like to be accused of collective guilt in killing someone else's "messiah" and then being forced to engage in a form of civic worship of that "messiah" even though they do not partake in the "salvation" he allegedly gave. Am I the only one who sees the similarity between forcing "redneck" kids to write essays praising MLK on the third monday in jan and forcing Jewish kids to celebrate chr*stmas?

But as I stated on an earlier thread, all these experiences and the lessons that should have been learned from them have been obliterated by the radical reduction of Jewishness to being a "minority."

[pnh102]

Eric Lee is a classless, bigoted jerk. You would think that if this group wanted to honor someone, it could have found a speaker with even a hint of class.

[SJackson]

Shameful! That's my fraternity and I hadn't heard anything about this.

Unexpected, and nothing to do with you. Besides, they've all made up.

Ziman and Lee hold hands, pledge friendship
Rabbi Marc Schneier (Foundation for Ethnic Undersatnding), Daphna Ziman, and Rev. Eric Lee (President and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles) following a meeting to reconcile differences between Lee and Ziman

Anything for a buck, whether receiving or giving.

[SJackson]

I hope you’re right about the vote. See 14, it’s all love and kisses.

[SJackson]

Your excellent article is read on this forum by people who are mostly agree with you anyway. Has it reached Mr. Lee,

See 14. Either his remarks were lies, or he now realizes the value of donors. My guess, the latter.

[murron]

Too many things are attributed to MLK if he would be alive today. Mostly how he would have been pro-life and a conservative. I think I even remember hearing someone say he would have been against Affirmative Action.

I don’t buy any of it. It is my estimation that if MLK were still alive, he wouldn’t be any better than Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. I believe he would have been just another opportunist, just as many of the black leaders of today are.

[ketsu]

Too many things are attributed to MLK if he would be alive today. Mostly how he would have been pro-life and a conservative. I think I even remember hearing someone say he would have been against Affirmative Action.

I don’t buy any of it. It is my estimation that if MLK were still alive, he wouldn’t be any better than Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. I believe he would have been just another opportunist, just as many of the black leaders of today are.

That's not true at all. King was a visionary, albeit the kind that gives FReepers the willies. What King had done(and it got him killed) was abandon identity politics for "social justice"/socialist agenda. King believed he wasn't just eliminating racism, he was going to *completely remake America*.

Sharpton and Jackson are just pandering opportunists. King was a once in a lifetime phenomenon. He had the potential to be a modern Mao, completely remaking American society.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Too many things are attributed to MLK if he would be alive today. Mostly how he would have been pro-life and a conservative. I think I even remember hearing someone say he would have been against Affirmative Action.

I don’t buy any of it. It is my estimation that if MLK were still alive, he wouldn’t be any better than Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. I believe he would have been just another opportunist, just as many of the black leaders of today are.

Sadly, I agree with you.

I must point out here that the problem with criticisms of MLK is that people assume that the critic wants to undo the civil rights movement and reinstitute jim crow (and unfortunately, there are many people out there who do think like this). My rejection of MLK has nothing to do with a rejection of the civil rights movement. In fact, if the civil rights movement had been completed by the Republican party in the nineteenth century there would be no leftist racial turmoil today!

[murron]

I just think it’s a mistake to project positions on MLK had he been alive today. I don’t see it. Politics of that era was different than politics of today.