This sports article by Scott Davis offers food for thought. A series of tweets and statements have raised questions about veins of anti-Semitism and silence in the NBA, sdavis@businessinsider.com (Scott Davis), INSIDER•July 19, 2020.
See https://www.yahoo.com/news/series-tweets-statements-raised-questions-131100537.html
Davis’s article touches on several of my themes. In my posts, I have pled for tolerance for differences of opinion, and called on critics to debate people on the merits of what they say, not to evade the issues or to silence them. Furthermore, I have expressed concerns about some of the assumptions and some of the tactics of people seeking social justice. My willingness to debate details of the social justice movement should not be confused with opposition or condemnation.
In my view, the application of the current methodology of sociology (defining white as whatever the analyst believes the social norm is, combined with assuming that group average inequality must be the result of unjust social systems) necessarily puts any seemingly successful group at risk. In the United States, this includes Asians, Jews, and recently immigrated Blacks.
The linked Davis article raises several of these same issues in the context of recent anti-Semitic statements by some Black former NBA players, and seeming silence by others.
- if for the purpose of social justice, white is defined as being able to take acceptance in society and personal rights for granted, are descendants of European Jews white?
- is it an anti-Semitic trope to assume that the relatively higher average income and educational status of the descendants of European Jews must be unjust?
- does speaking up for one person or group impose a duty to speak up for any person and groups, or may one pick and choose? What if you don’t consider yourself educated on the context that others encounter? Is silence still violence?
- does ‘anyone’ mean ‘all’? Does Kareen Abdul Jabaar saying “If we’re going to be outraged by injustice,” he said, “let’s be outraged by injustice against anyone” mean the same thing as ‘All Lives Matter’?
Please read the whole Davis article. Even if you skip the article, remember to tell me how wrong I am about everything I blog about.
Independent Perception 