DAVID NYHAN: FARRAKHAN AND THE BLACK-JEWISH RIFT
At the very beginning of the attack on The Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan, at least one journalist thought to get the facts and question the ADL. Here is the article by David Nyhan, Boston Globe, June 24, 1984, p. A25.
Many Jews are horrified by the way he tosses off observations about Hitler or Jews or US society, because they feel he is a dangerous demagogue who may exacerbate racial tensions. Many non-Jewish whites feel threatened or frightened by his rhetoric, because Farrakhan seems to say many things for shock value.
In person, he is slim, restrained, polite, rational. He is fiercely proud of his outspokenness against what he sees as racist white domination of black people. He says he’s become the most controversial black in the land, solely because he will not truckle to the white power structure.
He is also the avowed enemy of the Uncle Tom. He was speaking of the black elite the day he declared: “Our preacher-politician-education class of people are the worst crop of black people that we have ever had in our history.” It’s not just whites who get singed by his blowtorch rhetoric.
That comment came in the same March 11 radio broadcast in Chicago in which he appeared to threaten the life of the Washington Post reporter who disclosed Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “Hymie” remarks. That same speech had his first reference to Hitler. That speech was aimed to his regular black audience, but it has become the most controversial speech of the year – among whites. Until that point, Farrakhan’s audience was mainly blacks, among whom he’d built a small but loyal following. Farrakhan has since made many statements and ignited much controversy. The qualifications he employs often evaporate when quotes are picked up by the news media. Explanations, such as his claim that he did not threaten the Post reporter’s life, have been unconvincing to many.
Farrakhan insists his remarks are often taken out of context to embarrass him or Jackson, whom he supports. In Boston last week, Farrakhan claimed his original reference to Hitler was prompted by critics who, he said, had compared him to Hitler. A review of some press accounts of the original incident shows, as he claims, that he was not quoted fully.
Many politicians, such as Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Sen. Edward Kennedy, have condemned Farrakhan’s remarks about Hitler. Many Jewish leaders also have denounced the Hitler remarks.
A national Jewish organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith, issued a 24-page fact sheet on Farrakhan that characterizes his views as “violent hostility toward whites in general and Jews in particular.” The ADL says his words show he appeals to “bigotry and racism.”
An excerpted transcript of his March 11 speech, from the April 17 New York Times, shows that he did qualify his remarks about Hitler. Those qualifications were deleted from the ADL fact sheet. Here’s the original Times version; the sentences in capital letters are those deleted from the ADL fact sheet:
“Here come the Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn’t great for me as a black person, but he was a great German. NOW I’M NOT PROUD OF HITLER’S EVIL AGAINST JEWISH PEOPLE, BUT THAT’S A MATTER OF RECORD. He rose Germany up from nothing. Well, in a sense you could say there’s similarity in that we are rising our people up from nothing. BUT DON T COMPARE ME WITH YOUR WICKED KILLERS.”
The headlines out of this affair were not along the lines that “Farrakhan says he’s not proud of Hitler’s evil against Jewish people,” or “Farrakhan denounces Hitler as evil.”
The headlines were more like: “Farrakhan calls Hitler Great.” In Boston, Farrakhan said that he distinguishes between great and good, that great can be bad as well as good. For many people, that kind of rationalization doesn’t hold water. They hear “great” and they think it means that in his heart, Farrakhan thinks Hitler was right.
The ADL defends the omissions in its fact sheet. Alan Schwartz, assistant director of research for the ADL in New York, said in a phone interview that he prepared the fact sheet. Schwartz says that he omitted the two sentences for reasons of brevity and that he in no way twisted Farrakhan’s remarks to make the Black Muslim leader seem more pro-Hitler than he is.
“I don’t think it is misleading at all,” he said. His omissions did not “substantially alter the import and meaning,” and “clearly, he was seeking to promote the idea of a positive attitude toward Hitler.” Quibbling over the omission of the two sentences is “splitting hairs,” he said.
“It was a statement, at the bottom line, in praise of Hitler, which is a moral outrage,” Schwartz maintained.
Schwartz and other ADL officials interviewed about this believe the case is open-and-shut. And many other people, some as prominent as Mondale and Kennedy, agree that Farrakhan is beyond the pale.
But the fact remains: Farrakhan originally said “I’m not proud of Hitler’s evil against Jewish people,” and he added, “Don’t compare me with your wicked killers.” To delete these phrases changes Farrakhan’s meaning.
The issue now goes beyond whether the ADL’s version of Farrakhan’s words accurately conveys his meaning. The current level of black-Jewish tensions is dangerously high. Rev. Jackson’s presidential campaign, a crusade to most blacks, is widely feared by many Jews. The ADL’s national director, Nathan Perlmutter, has branded Jackson an anti-Semite. The black-Jewish split presents a major hurdle to the Democratic Party as it heads into a national convention with its two most loyal constituencies at loggerheads.
It is the most significant rift the party faces. The rupture of the long- time civil rights alliance has ominous implications that go far beyond one political party or one political year.
The voters and the media are going to be called on to make a lot of decisions this summer about this issue, and the people who are involved. The place to start is with the rhetoric. Both sides have been escalating lately.
Blacks and Jews have to get together soon. There has to be some restraint, some acknowledgement that the other side has its legitimate fears. Both groups have undergone horrific treatment this century, never mind earlier centuries. Their fears are real. They have to be addressed, now, this summer.