John Lewis (D, Ga.) and Martin Frost (D, Tex.) have a sadly touching OpEd in the Washington Post today arguing, in effect, that widespread reports of the death of the Black-Jewish coalition are premature, or at least that they should be. Lewis and Frost are eloquent in their evocation of the shared battles and common causes of the historical alliance, but not very persuasive about its future.
The primary bond between the two communities was always their shared history of oppression and their cooperation in opposing it. Although there had always been pockets of resentment against Jewish merchants in the ghetto, the first major strains in the alliance were produced by the emergence of affirmative action as a central component of civil rights in the late 1960s. Jews had always regarded quotas as barriers designed to exclude them; civil rights leaders turned to them — or their euphemistic equivalents, goals and timetables — as devices to promote inclusion. Jews and blacks marched together so long as the goal was color-blind, religion-blind justice. Tensions arose when the principle of neutrality was replaced in the civil rights agenda by the turn toward preferences. Lewis and Frost do not mention this issue.
The second, more recent, and now dominant source of friction between the two communities is the disproportionate support of the Palestinians and opposition to Israel in the black community, or at least among black leaders, often accompanied by what can only be called anti-semitism. To my knowledge there are no Jewish leaders (are there in fact any Jewish leaders?), or even prominent Jews, who have made anti-black comments in any way comparable to what Al Sharpton, Lewis Farrakhan, Cynthia McKinney, Newark Mayor Sharpe James (he accused his young black opponent, Cory Booker, of conspiring with Jews to take over the city) have said about Jews.
For what it may be worth, perhaps I should add that, although I am nominally Jewish, I don’t identify myself as primarily Jewish. I never had even a strong interest in Israel until 9/11. And I have always regarded John Lewis as something of a secular saint. He and I are even from the same home town, although a slight age difference and significantly high wall of segregation kept us from knowing each other when we were growing up. (His memoir of the civil rights movement, Walking With the Wind, at one point describes shopping in what was then my family’s department store.)
I continue to have the highest regard and respect for John Lewis, but as long as he supports people like Earl Hilliard and Cynthia McKinney (pro-Palestinian black incumbents recently defeated in Democratic primaries by moderate black opponents) and keeps his back turned to the principled color-blindness of his early career, I can no longer feel we are part of the same movement. Nor, however, do I think I am the one who has changed direction.
Our politics are changing. They always do. Parties matter less than issues. But there can be no doubt, when reading things like this, that the Democratic party has a lot of headaches it’s trying to ignore–even as they get worse and worse.