Stephen Jackson is a dumb***

[badinage]

Welp. Another Jew-hater.

I’m sure there are many more in the league. And in other leagues. Distressing — but, sadly, not surprising.

I put this out there in the spirit of equal time. Many on the right say that those on the left are unwilling to call out the hateful speech and action of those on the putative left. I’m not one of those — I call out my own. And Stephen Jackson must be made to pay for this — by losing any opportunities in the league, by being denied a platform, by being given remediation.

It is high time for many athletes — and, indeed — great masses of this society to reckon with their Christian privilege.

And no, I am not joking.

[montestewart]

Welp. Another Jew-hater.

I’m sure there are many more in the league. And in other leagues. Distressing — but, sadly, not surprising.

I put this out there in the spirit of equal time. Many on the right say that those on the left are unwilling to call out the hateful speech and action of those on the putative left. I’m not one of those — I call out my own. And Stephen Jackson must be made to pay for this — by losing any opportunities in the league, by being denied a platform, by being given remediation.

It is high time for many athletes — and, indeed — great masses of this society to reckon with their Christian privilege.

And no, I am not joking.

I’m behind the times. What did he say?

I guess this can be a stand-alone for a minute, then maybe merge into politics thread, since the discussion will probably fit well.

[payitforward]

What'd he say/do?

[Kanyewest]

What'd he say/do?

This is the post that DeSean shared

[dlts20]

Meh, who cares. I like Jack but he's not LeBron and he will not be playing. The most you will hear about him is his lives which hardly anyone doesn't even know unless you repost it. He was truly one of Floyd's closest so take that into consideration. We are just watching it but that's actually someone close to him that he saw murdered and suffering on live TV. That will make someone flip. Try to understand that too. You may respond differently if George was actually your close brother. He also probably feels helpless because he can't play so he knows that his voice will soon fade into the background which is hurtful when he wants his brother's legacy to live on

[payitforward]

Aaahh, well -- that's an incoherent bunch of nonsense, of course. But I have something to say based on it....

First off, as I think I've posted on one or another occasion, I'm one of those "Jews." I'm also someone most of whose family was wiped out by the Germans, the Nazis. In my Father's extended family, two people got out of Europe alive, my Father & one of his 2 sisters. His other sister, a bright & talented 19-year old, was gassed at Auschwitz. As was his Mother. Also his Father. & pretty much everyone else in the entire extended family (although, miraculously, I was contacted about a decade ago by a 2d cousin who survived & lived her life in Poland -- she died a couple of years ago, alas).

My Father picked up a liver disease in a French camp; he lived along enough to have 2 kids (me, obviously, & my sister) but died of that liver disease when I was 4. He was 34 years old. The story on my Mother's side is more or less the same though not quite as thoroughly awful.

Above all, however, the family did survive. I have 2 children & 4 grandchildren; my sister has 2 kids & 5 grandkids. I'm not looking for sympathy; save that for the millions who perished -- not just Jews, either but gypsies, homosexuals, Socialists, & millions who were merely in the path of Hitler's armies. Hell, over 16 million Russians died in WWII -- &, for that matter, over 4 million German soldiers alone.

In one week, Allied bombs killed over 120,000 Germans in Dresden -- & destroyed the city. This was when the war was almost over; there was no strategic, military reason for the campaign whatever. It was payback. It's easy to say that they deserved it -- but who is "they?" Did the infants, schoolkids, etc. who died deserve it?

All this is preface to what I really want to say: many people, maybe most people, make the same mistake in thinking about antisemitism that they do in thinking about racism: they imagine that these phenomena represent some kind of "prejudice." They don't -- though of course people do feel prejudices of all sorts.

Both antisemitism & racism are what one might call "world-historical" phenomena. In the case of racism, it is a theory of the world that was invented in the 19th century as the ideological bulwark of global colonialism & imperialism. The classic justifying text is described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Inequality_of_the_Human_Races.

The fact that racism & prejudice are altogether different phenomena is easily illustrated right here on this forum: nate -- one of my favorite posters -- is a declared racist. But, I've never seen him show even the slightest sign of prejudice. He plays basketball 2 nights a week at the YMCA, which has to mean that he has black teammates. I'd be willing to bet that he has no trouble whatever getting along in that circle of guys.

Am I making all that up? I don't know nate, so I suppose it's possible. But... I really doubt it.

Like racism, antisemitism is not a product of prejudice. & just as racism is also not a product of any fact about black human beings, so too antisemitism is not a product of any facts about Jewish human beings. Instead -- again like racism -- antisemitism is a key theory of the world. It's at the heart of the founding of European (& our) civilization. As Christianity developed, did its mind-meld with the Roman Empire, & set out to convert the entire world (as the Roman Empire's new-&-improved way of staying alive!), Jews posed both a problem (Christianity recycled its core ideas but Jews weren't interested in being absorbed thereby) & a solution (no way was the church going to let it be the Romans who killed Jesus -- a radical Jewish rabbi, btw! -- since that could only prove an embarrassment for both sides of the newly-struck power bargain).

In other words, antisemitism is basic to Western Civilization, and racism is basic to modern global capitalism.

So... every word written on the page in "oneofone"'s post may be billshut, & in fact that's what it is, but what he has right is that both racism & antisemitism are manifestations of powerful historical forces -- not just the amalgamated prejudices of however many individuals.

Hey, how much do I know about basketball, really? Feel free to think I'm an idiot for wanting to trade down in the draft or whatever....

But, this stuff I know a lot about. From personal & family experience, from being forced by that experience to investigate these phenomena in depth, & from a long life forcing my brain to work hard plowing the fields in this region of human experience. What I wrote above... that's the truth. & if Stephen Jackson has done something that winds up putting the truth right in your path or mine where we can't avoid it, then he still may be a dumb*** but we need to be grateful to him all the same.

End of screed!

[Shaka_Zulu]

Damn. Fantastic post payitforward.

[payitforward]

Thanks, Shaka Zulu!

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

The one problem with all of the posts thus far on the thread is that it wasn’t Stephen Jackson who posted it, but rather it was Desean Jackson.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Damn. Fantastic post payitforward.

Agreed. Thanks brother PIF for sharing your story and your insights.

[Ruzious]

The one problem with all of the posts thus far on the thread is that it wasn’t Stephen Jackson who posted it, but rather it was Desean Jackson.

DeSean Jackson has profusely apologized for the post, but Stephen Jackson defended DeSean's post.

A transcript of Stephen Jackson’s comments:

So I just read a statement that the Philadelphia Eagles posted regarding DeSean Jackson’s comments. He was trying to educate himself, educate people and he’s speaking the truth. Right? He’s speaking the truth. You know he don’t hate nobody, but he’s speaking the truth, the facts that he know and try to educate others. But y’all don’t want us to educate ourselves.

If it’s talking about the Black race, y’all ain’t saying nothing about it. They killing us, police killing us and treating us like s---. Racism at an all-time high, but ain’t none of you NFL owners spoke up on that. Ain’t none of you teams spoke up on that. But the same team had a receiver that say the word n----- publicly, and they gave him an extension. I play for the Big 3. We have a Jewish owner. He understands where we stand and some of the things we say, but it’s not directed to him. It’s the way we been treated. Philadelphia, y’all need to repost this.

His first paragraph is complete utter garbage and stains whatever reasoned comments he tried to make in his second paragraph. He's hurting whatever cause he might have by coming across as a dumb f. I'm not going to blast DeSean, because - at least from what I've heard - he's profusely apologized.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

The one problem with all of the posts thus far on the thread is that it wasn’t Stephen Jackson who posted it, but rather it was Desean Jackson.

DeSean Jackson has profusely apologized for the post, but Stephen Jackson defended DeSean's post.

A transcript of Stephen Jackson’s comments:

So I just read a statement that the Philadelphia Eagles posted regarding DeSean Jackson’s comments. He was trying to educate himself, educate people and he’s speaking the truth. Right? He’s speaking the truth. You know he don’t hate nobody, but he’s speaking the truth, the facts that he know and try to educate others. But y’all don’t want us to educate ourselves.

If it’s talking about the Black race, y’all ain’t saying nothing about it. They killing us, police killing us and treating us like s---. Racism at an all-time high, but ain’t none of you NFL owners spoke up on that. Ain’t none of you teams spoke up on that. But the same team had a receiver that say the word n----- publicly, and they gave him an extension. I play for the Big 3. We have a Jewish owner. He understands where we stand and some of the things we say, but it’s not directed to him. It’s the way we been treated. Philadelphia, y’all need to repost this.

His first paragraph is complete utter garbage and stains whatever reasoned comments he tried to make in his second paragraph. He's hurting whatever cause he might have by coming across as a dumb f. I'm not going to blast DeSean, because - at least from what I've heard - he's profusely apologized.

Oh shixt. I didn’t realize Stephen Jackson had chimed in. I stand corrected... Hate is hate.

[payitforward]

I suppose it's a little strange that I'm the one speaking as it were "in defense" of these guys....

Of course, the particulars of the original post are pure crapola, but SJ is right that it represents an attempt to understand something. To find roots & reasons for it. In that sense, I accept his statement that DJ "was trying to educate himself."

That said, DJ is on the wrong track quoting all that Hitler stuff: Nazism is based on racism, including on the deGobineau essay I mentioned previously. Hitler barely considered black people as human at all.

Here's the thing -- the reason racism is bad thinking is because there are no such things as races. There is no "black race." There is no "white race." Jews are not a "race." There is no "oriental race."

"Race" is an idea invented out of nothing to fit a purpose. It's no more based on reality than it would be to claim that there is a "brown-haired race" or a "green-eyed race."

[montestewart]

I suppose it's a little strange that I'm the one speaking as it were "in defense" of these guys....

Of course, the particulars of the original post are pure crapola, but SJ is right that it represents an attempt to understand something. To find roots & reasons for it. In that sense, I accept his statement that DJ "was trying to educate himself."

That said, DJ is on the wrong track quoting all that Hitler stuff: Nazism is based on racism, including on the deGobineau essay I mentioned previously. Hitler barely considered black people as human at all.

Here's the thing -- the reason racism is bad thinking is because there are no such things as races. There is no "black race." There is no "white race." Jews are not a "race." There is no "oriental race."

"Race" is an idea invented out of nothing to fit a purpose. It's no more based on reality than it would be to claim that there is a "brown-haired race" or a "green-eyed race."

PIF, there is a Stephen Jackson thread on the Current Affairs board. I didn't want to repost your comment above to such a broad audience without asking, but I directed some people there to this thread and your post, because it represents a pretty clear eyed perspective that seems unrepresented in their discussion. Consider posting it there.

[payitforward]

Monte -- sorry to have lost the thread.... I've got kids/grandkids visiting & have been offline.

I don't think I want to enter the fray over in that board. But, of course, you should feel free to repost the above.

I wonder whether the first sentence, "I suppose it's a little strange..." will make sense without a reference to my earlier, much longer post in the thread; hence you should feel free to repost that one as well if you think it a good idea (or simply link to it -- as you prefer).

[montestewart]

Monte -- sorry to have lost the thread.... I've got kids/grandkids visiting & have been offline.

I don't think I want to enter the fray over in that board. But, of course, you should feel free to repost the above.

I wonder whether the first sentence, "I suppose it's a little strange..." will make sense without a reference to my earlier, much longer post in the thread; hence you should feel free to repost that one as well if you think it a good idea (or simply link to it -- as you prefer).

Yes, was actually referring to the longer post above. Will at some point repost it in that thread, which is still going strong, with some interesting points of view, but so far as I've seen, none like yours.

Enjoy your time with family.

[payitforward]

Thanks. Let me know if you do repost....