Will Black Lives Matter Support for Palestinians Create Rift With Black the Civil Rights Establishment?

Will Black Lives Matter Support for Palestinians Create a Rift with the Black Establishment?

As the Black Lives Matter Movement continues to gather momentum among younger "Black" Americans, African Americans representing the old guard appear to be taking a more guarded approach to these budding 21st century activists. Older African Americans still wedded to memories of the 1960's Civil Rights movement are more beholding to historic alliances than this new generation of Blacks fighting for social justice here and abroad.

During the Civil Rights era, African Americans received a lot of moral and financial support from America's Jewish community. Jewish people walked arm and arm with African Americans in the Deep South when they could have just made a donation and wished them luck. Some Jewish people took a real risk sticking their necks out for African Americans in places like Mississippi. And while those necks weren't stretched by some Redneck's rope, a lot of Jews did get their asses kicked during that struggle. This is the kinda support you don't forget.

Still, the Civil Rights fight ended more than sixty years ago. The Civil Rights leadership during those days was largely tethered to the church. The church was where African Americans took refuge to organize, plan and pray. Since the bible and its teachings were ever-present during those meetings, many  African Americans quite naturally realized the historic plight of the Jewish people resembled that of the African American. The two groups had enough in common, at the time, to see the strength in numbers angle. So for a time, the marriage of convenience worked.

Unfortunately, times have changed dramatically. Many Black Americans championing today's fight for social justice, weren't even born until the 1990's. They read about Martin Luther King in books and saw Youtube videos of his speeches. Many don't know the names of Andrew Goodman and Michael Schewrner, two Jewish civil rights workers killed with African American James Chaney for daring to register Blacks to vote. That's all history now.

Since that time, American Jews have rocketed to the top of the economic food chain, while American Blacks have been in a perpetual slide to the bottom of the nation's social strata. Jewish people even have their own country to go to if they get tired of America. When anti-Semitism rears its ugly head anywhere in the world, the Jewish people have a safe haven to flee to. Not so for the African American. When the going gets tough and the going for African Americans always is, they have no place to run or hide. They have no space of their own to call home. 

Many Black social justice activists today feel they have far more in common with the Palestinian people than they'll ever see again with the Jewish people. And they may have a point, because no other demographic on the planet exists on a lower social strata than the Palestinian people. Like African Americans, they too have no place to run, hide or call home. In fact, the Black Lives Movement felt so strong a connection to the Palestinian, they actually accused Israel of being an apartheid state and committing acts of genocide in their platform. 

As you can imagine, Jewish groups aren't taking this lightly and have called upon "more responsible" voices in the African American community to distance themselves from any and all negative BLM positions the movement takes against the state of Israel. And America's Black establishment has done just that. 

It was reported last month that a group of African-American pastors, representing 9 million congregants, issued a statement describing those portions of the BLM platform as “a vitriolic attack against Israel laced with misinformation and anti-Semitism and an agenda that is not embraced by the broader African-American community.” 

But wait there's more: “The anti-Semitism and misinformation found in this small segment is so misleading that it makes an experienced leader question the entire document and thus the intentions of the organization,” the pastors added. “The Jewish community has been an ally of Black America, most significantly during the civil rights movement and even today. Together these two communities have been the conscience of America leading the fight for human and civil rights for decades. Jews have been our reliable friends, just like Israel.” The differences in worldview couldn't be any starker or darker.

Bottom line: This younger generation of social justice fighters can clearly relate to a Black man being taken from his original homeland and the Palestinian having his original homeland taken from him. With both groups feeling overwhelmingly oppressed, one needn't be a genius to make the painful connection. But it's this very connection between young Black activists and the Palestinian people that's causing a disconnect with the Black Civil Rights establishment.