At the anti-Israel marches overwhelming our cities each Saturday, some of the rhetoric has been outright alarming. There have been chants warning Jews that “the army of Mohammed is returning”. A speaker disparagingly referred to Suella Braverman’s “Jewish husband” – before hastily correcting it to “Zionist husband”. There have even been images of swastikas.
Many progressives, however, remain silent about such nakedly hateful invective. Which is odd. Normally, when an ethnic minority group is subjected to intimidation and abuse, progressives are the first to call out racism. So why not now?
The reason, I suspect, is simple. Many of the people on these marches are non-white. And a lot of progressives are incapable of processing the idea that non-white people can be racist.
They just can’t compute it. They see racism as unique to white people. Such a belief is remarkably widespread in modern Left-wing circles. It even gets promoted to children. As we reported at the weekend, schools in Scotland have been supplied with books which tell children that “racism started” when “white people wanted to have more control over people who were not white”, and that “being racist against white people is not a thing”.
But the idea that white people can’t be victims of racism is ridiculous. Many European Jews have white skin. Does this mean that the Nazis weren’t racist? Of course not. Nazis didn’t loathe Jews because of their religion. Nazis loathed Jews because they considered them to be an inferior race, regardless of what colour their skin might be.
The above point may seem so screamingly obvious that it shouldn’t need saying. Yet apparently it does. David Baddiel’s excellent Jews Don’t Count, published in 2021, argues that many otherwise progressive people have a blind spot when it comes to racism against Jews. At times, these marches have felt like inadvertent promotional campaigns for his book. Because they, and the scarcity of condemnation by progressives, illustrate his argument with horrible clarity.
Yet still, it seems, the notion persists that non-white people cannot be guilty of racism. Except, that is, in one very specific circumstance.
When a non-white person is a Tory.
As far as progressives are concerned, all Tories are racist. Which means that non-white Tories – such as Suella Braverman – must be racist, too. If anything, non-white Tories are deemed to be the most shocking racists of all, because they’re “traitors”, shamelessly selling out their race in order to suck up to white people. Hence the revolting slur “coconut” – meaning brown on the outside, white on the inside.
At one anti-Israel march last weekend, a placard depicted Braverman and Rishi Sunak as coconuts. If that isn’t hate, what is?
Many progressives, however, remain silent about such nakedly hateful invective. Which is odd. Normally, when an ethnic minority group is subjected to intimidation and abuse, progressives are the first to call out racism. So why not now?
The reason, I suspect, is simple. Many of the people on these marches are non-white. And a lot of progressives are incapable of processing the idea that non-white people can be racist.
They just can’t compute it. They see racism as unique to white people. Such a belief is remarkably widespread in modern Left-wing circles. It even gets promoted to children. As we reported at the weekend, schools in Scotland have been supplied with books which tell children that “racism started” when “white people wanted to have more control over people who were not white”, and that “being racist against white people is not a thing”.
But the idea that white people can’t be victims of racism is ridiculous. Many European Jews have white skin. Does this mean that the Nazis weren’t racist? Of course not. Nazis didn’t loathe Jews because of their religion. Nazis loathed Jews because they considered them to be an inferior race, regardless of what colour their skin might be.
The above point may seem so screamingly obvious that it shouldn’t need saying. Yet apparently it does. David Baddiel’s excellent Jews Don’t Count, published in 2021, argues that many otherwise progressive people have a blind spot when it comes to racism against Jews. At times, these marches have felt like inadvertent promotional campaigns for his book. Because they, and the scarcity of condemnation by progressives, illustrate his argument with horrible clarity.
Yet still, it seems, the notion persists that non-white people cannot be guilty of racism. Except, that is, in one very specific circumstance.
When a non-white person is a Tory.
As far as progressives are concerned, all Tories are racist. Which means that non-white Tories – such as Suella Braverman – must be racist, too. If anything, non-white Tories are deemed to be the most shocking racists of all, because they’re “traitors”, shamelessly selling out their race in order to suck up to white people. Hence the revolting slur “coconut” – meaning brown on the outside, white on the inside.
At one anti-Israel march last weekend, a placard depicted Braverman and Rishi Sunak as coconuts. If that isn’t hate, what is?
