October
I went to Northwestern University. It’s in Evanston, Illinois. Going home to Michigan meant taking a train that cost $50 round trip, or the Greyhound that cost $20. I took the Greyhound. I’d take the train to the South Side of Chicago, at 95th street, the end of the line. The train on the north side was quiet white people going to work or rowdy white 20-somethings who drank too much. The train on the south side still has the quiet commuters, but it’s a community. It’s a combination train and swap meet and nightclub and, at that time, overwhelmingly Black.
I bought a bootleg DVD of A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. Good quality except the dude who made the video spoke over the end credits like he was the producer. I met the R&B singer Joe, or a fantastic fake, back when it was cool to meet the R&B singer Joe. I heard gospel singers, and rappers, and everything in between. Some amazing talents and some folks so bad the whole train would laugh together. I saw tee-shirts and medallions and belts and sneakers and everything else for sale. I also saw people way smoother than me meet the love of their life. Or at least their love for the night.
I also met Hoteps. Lots and lots of Hoteps. I realize from talking to my wife that white people don’t really know that word. Hoteps tell the history of Black people before the slave trade, using Egyptian history as their guide.
They’re on the train trying to talk to you. They’re on the platform selling books and giving away pamphlets. They talk about African kings and queens. About how Black men need to understand the world around them fully to fight oppression.
They also teach that homosexuality is wrong and evil. That women are secondary to men, and are to be protected, not to be fighting for their own freedom. That while white people stole our history and our people, it was due to a Jewish plot purposely created to kill Africans. They liberally quote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Jewish comic book from 100 years go that has been debunked for 100 years. All of this supposed knowledge is based on a pretend history cobbled together from 54 African nations and thousands of tribes.
There was a bit of a Hotep news cycle in February of 2021 when CPAC, the Conversative group, rescinded an invitation to a Hotep named Young Pharoah because he hates Jewish people and is a crazy person. You’d have to ask them why he was invited in the first place.
These are the Pro-Black people who are never for progress. They want to teach you lies about who deserves blame but never want to improve anything for anybody. Their goal is to be seen as the smartest man in the room, but don’t seem to want to do anything with that.
What could possibly make me think of these Anti-intellectual idiots right now?
Kanye and Kyrie, the two most famous Anti-Jewish Black people right now. No mincing words. They didn’t “highlight Anti-Semitic tropes”. They hate Jewish people and are putting out stuff that says that. They’re talking about going “death con on Jews” and sharing Alex Jones tweets and Hotep documentaries quoting Adolf Hitler’s secret love and admiration of Black people.
Kanye and Kyrie were talented at a young age. They’ve been told how smart and gifted they are. They’ve both been called geniuses in public. They both talk about expanding their minds on YouTube and other social media platforms. Kanye said he doesn’t read. Kyrie proves he doesn’t read. This is how you end up with established, well-respected adults shouting conspiracy nonsense and swearing that anyone that disagrees is in on the game.
Be clear. There’s no debate. There’s no other side. One side makes up nonsense just to be hateful. The other side says, “Don’t do that.” Anyone pretending KK’s perspective is fair or measured or deserves audience is stupid.
And this is a road that we’re not going down. We’re not starting to go down. We know what happens when we start “just asking questions” about Jewish people. We know what happens when we start having “open debate” about Jewish people. We know what happens we turn our Jewish neighbors into “others”. Their synagogues get torched. Their homes get bombed. They get killed.
If you want to have the “Why isn’t it the same when something happens to Black people” conversation, we can have that! I would love to have that conversation. That has nothing to do with what’s happening right now. If Black people are treated better or worse or the backlash to our mistreatment is better or worse will have no bearing on what’s happening to our Jewish brothers and sisters right now. And that pretends we’re in a world without Black Jews. They supposed to pick a side?
The same Hotep bullshit I laughed at in 1997 is being presented by influential figures 25 years later as though it’s new and important.
Social media told us that everyone has a voice. That’s always been true. Everyone has something to say. You just have to learn the right ones to ignore.
