Hi everybody. This is the audio version of a six-part essay series called Blacks and Jews. I wrote it for my Substack a while back, so if it sounds like I’m reading instead of speaking naturally, it’s because in this case I am. I decided to release this to everyone on the main feed because, in light of the recent uproar and brewing Democratic Party civil war over the Israel-Palestine conflict, it’s suddenly become quite timely. Black and Jewish Americans were uniquely united until the late 1960s, when the civil rights movement was subsumed by a Third Worldist outlook that caused the Black Panthers and other activists to turn on the State of Israel, and then on American Jews. It precipitated a split in the so-called Black-Jewish alliance which had been the backbone of the civil rights movement during its glory years, and led to some of the worst outbursts of public antisemitism in American history. The intra-left wing conflict over the current conflict in Gaza is not a new story, and in fact is an example of scabs being torn off old wounds that had barely begun to heal. I wrote this series as I was preparing the most recent episode of Whose America, Inner City Blues, so those of you who’ve heard that will be familiar with some of the material, but there’s also a lot of material that wasn’t in that episode.
As I said, this was previously released on my Substack, so if you enjoy this kind of content maybe you’ll show a little holiday cheer and help support the podcast by becoming a subscriber for just $5 p/month or $50 p/year. This is a 100% listener-funded show, I don’t have sponsors or any other kind of funding except what you guys contribute, so your generosity is greatly appreciated.