******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
It really is a common phrase. I don't even listen to rap music. I think you guys are giving an awful lot of leeway to an orchestrated attack while giving very little to Omar. No reasonable reading of what we see on Twitter involved her saying anything insensitive. Other people read anti-Semitic tropes into it the same way they've read it into virtually any opposition to Israel, it's lobby, etc. It reminds me of that fiasco some years back about the Muslim kid who built a clock and was arrested because the teacher said it might be a bomb. Once the idea that it was "bomb-like" was planted, other people began lending validity to the suspicion, as though the kid had done something wrong. The same thing is happening here. Only after the onslaught did anyone go back and read anti-Semitism into what were actually entirely benign comments. The anti-Semitism panic is reversely dictating the meaning of her tweets when any reasonable reading of the tweets said nothing wrong. And she felt the need to apologize for fairly obvious reasons that had nothing to do with her being incorrect. She was held hostage. Amith R. Gupta On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 10:40 PM Ken Hiebert via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > A. R. G. Said: > > > The Benjamins = money in rap culture. I'm guessing some of you guys are > old: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c58ppLPJcQ < > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c58ppLPJcQ> > > It's also impressive how otherwise intelligent people can so easily be > dragged into an absolutely ridiculous and racist witch-hunt. Omar said that > AIPAC lobbying was all about money. There is nothing even vaguely > anti-Semitic about that unless you are already on a witch-hunt for it and > trying to associate Zionist advocacy with a Jewish conspiracy. Moreover, > even assuming there is any connection it would indicate that AIPAC embodies > an anti-Semitic caricature; hardly Omar's fault. > > Goldberg is a windbag. > > * * * * * > > Ken Hiebert replies: > > I have to admit that I was ignorant of the meaning of Benjamins in rap > culture. And I don’t know what percentage of the American people would > catch that reference. Presumably, if a majority of people understood the > reference, Rep. Omar could have said, “Everyone knows what I’m talking > about.” > > It could be argued that the reference to Benjamins would help get the > message out to a certain percentage of the American people. But, looking > at this from a distance, it seems that the use of the word Benjamins got in > the way of her message. It was possible for some people to misunderstand > it and for others to use it as a handle to attack her. > > Of course we can’t replay this experience to see what’d might have > happened if she had used language that was more difficult to twist against > her. > > In any case, it is a good thing that someone denounced AIPAC and I hope > that next time this happens it will be said in such a way that the person > does not feel a need to apologize. > > > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/amithrgupta%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
