When George Floyd died in 2020, the country -- and even the world -- erupted in both a figurative and literal explosion, as every element of our society forced us to have a nationwide reckoning on the subject of racism. George Floyd, we were told -- no, ordered -- was a symbol of the conscious, unconscious, implicit, explicit, institutional, systemic, and systematic racism that continued to corrupt our civilization.
It was time for a national conversation on race. No ifs, ands, or buts. Black Lives Matter.
When a gunman went on a rampage through Atlanta in 2021, killing eight people at three massage parlors, there was a widespread declaration that anti-Asian hate was out of control, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19 when it was racist to suggest that communist China was to blame for the virus they unleashed on the world.
It was time for a national conversation on anti-Asian hate. No ifs, ands, or buts. Asian Lives Matter.
In the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, shameless and rampant antisemitism has exploded across the country. Chants of "resistance by any means necessary," "from the river to the sea," and "globalize the intifada" have inevitably been obeyed. In May, a Jewish woman and her Christian soon-to-be-fiancé were executed in Washington, D.C. In June, Jews were burned alive in Boulder, Colorado. In April, an arsonist attempted to murder Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family after setting the governor's mansion ablaze. In November 2023, a Jewish man was killed in Thousand Oaks, California, after being hit in the head with a megaphone. In October 2023, a Jewish community leader was stabbed to death in Detroit. In January 2022, Jews were taken hostage in a Texas synagogue.
Every year, every month, every day, there are brazen acts of antisemitism committed across the country, let alone throughout Europe and the Muslim world. In the United States, Jews remain the most-targeted religious group, according to FBI hate crime data, all while antisemitism rises year-on-year. In 2024, there was a 5% increase in antisemitic incidents 2024 compared to 2023, and a 140% increase 2023 compared to 2022.
Where is our national conversation? Where are the chants of Jewish Lives Matter, rather than the sudden renovation of "All Lives Matter"? Why can we not condemn antisemitism while also condemning so-called Islamophobia (real or imaginary), particularly when Muslims carry out many antisemitic attacks? Where is the usual brutal honesty regarding the race and religion of the perpetrators when the victims are Jews? Where is the national outcry against specific hate? Where is the condemnation of those who fuel the fires of this hate?
When victims are Black or Asian or Hispanic or Muslim, people (correctly) have no qualms condemning violent hate, and the media won't hesitate for a moment to delve into the identity or background of the perpetrator.
But when Jews are victimized again and again and again? Well, they're Jews after all, so there must be an explanation. Sure, they were killed by someone screaming, "Free Palestine," but perhaps the national conversation needs to be on the evil of Israel? Calling for the death of Jews is all about context, as the heads of our elite institutions would say.
Give me a break.
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