Last year, a Nylah Burton & I went public to talk about some of the racist abuses we endured at the hands of our editor Batya Ungar Sargon. They were humiliating and painful. Coming forward was not easy and we faced backlash. One of the people who did so was @PeterBeinart

He could have kept his mouth shut. That would have been better, but instead he offered his very powerful voice in opposition to what we said, defending Batya. It's clear he either didn't read the article in Jewish Currents or did and just didn't care.

I have spent my entire adult life navigating Jewish organizational spaces. They all have institutionalized anti-Blackness. Every single one. Existing in those spaces is perpetually exhausting. Trying to fight against them is excruciating.

For Peter to offer resistance in this moment was him upholding white supremacy, racism and institutionalized abuse.
It's not the first time he's done this and probably won't be the last.

So, to see him upheld as creating this watershed moment in Palestinian rights without having reckoned with his participation in organized discrimination is irritating to say the least.
He is given a platform even over Palestinian voices in their own struggle. This is obnoxious.

Too many progressives voice their opposition to Trump or cops without examining how they perpetuate institutionalized racism in their own lives.

It's easy to be anti-Trump if you're not a Trump supporter. It's easy to be anti-cop if you're not a cop...

But where the true test of your character lies is if you are willing to dismantle the platforms of racism that you stand on. That have sustained you. That means giving BIPOC voices the priority. Anything else is charity and charity isn't justice.

The worst part about this moment is the alienation. It is alienating to see a "watershed" moment, that you cannot be a part of, because it centers somebody who has done you harm....

Alienation is the most consistent theme for Black Jews. We know it in synagogues, shabbat tables and institutions. Progressive circles are no different, but it stings more, because they're supposed to be better.