“Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day” 

– from “Somebody Blew up America” by Amiri Baraka.

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

 – Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

"I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it."

 [I wanted to be] "…like Hitler in the Nuremberg stadium. And have all those people scream at you and just being total agreement whatever you say."

– California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1975.

"My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy, but I love him and Maria does too, and so thank you, Kurt."

 – Arnold Schwarzenegger on his friend and fellow Austrian, Kurt Waldheim, a Nazi war criminal.

Poet, essayist and playwright Amiri Baraka was stripped of the title Poet Laureate of the State of New Jersey after his poem, “Somebody Blew up America,” was made public in 2002. The poem acknowledged the suffering of the Jewish people in the European holocaust and the injustices resulting from the Reichstag fire, but the stanza alleging that Israel had knowledge of the September 11th attacks made Baraka a pariah. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey yielded to pressure to abolish the poet laureate position. Baraka maintained his right to freedom of speech and continued to insist there were 4,000 Israeli employees at the World Trade Center and that none of them went to work on that fateful day.

“To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination. But I do believe, as I stated about England, Germany, France, Russia, that the Israeli government, certainly it’s security force, SHABAK knew about the attack in advance.”

The Baraka saga is all too familiar. Black Americans who make remarks offensive to white people are demonized, denounced, fired from their jobs and are used as tools to keep other black people in line who are also forced to denounce them.

Conversely, Arnold Schwarzenegger, muscleman turned actor, turned Governor of California, once said that he admired Adolf Hitler. Unlike Baraka, or Jesse Jackson – remember “Hymietown” – Schwarzenegger’s sins have been forgiven. Zionist groups have recently said that anti-Zionist opinions are inherently anti-Semitic. If that is the case then pro-Hitler views must surely be considered anti-Semitic.

Schwarzenegger has apparently lived down his pro-Hitler days because he recently visited Israel and received a celebrity hero’s welcome. Not only was the Governor an admirer of Hitler, but his father was a member of the Nazi party in his native Austria. At Schwarzenegger’s wedding to Maria Shriver he raised a toast to Kurt Waldheim, former Secretary General of the United Nations who was a member of the Nazi SS.

None of these outrages hurt because Arnold is powerful and white. Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California despite having groped and fondled women against their will, using the word nigger in public and expressing views in support of South African apartheid. He is the new Teflon political leader.

There isn’t enough Teflon in the world to help a black person or institution accused of being anti-Semitic. The late Khalid Muhammad, one-time spokesman of the Nation of Islam, was plucked from obscurity for the purpose of being denounced from editorial pages and the halls of Congress when in November 1993 he called Jews “blood suckers.” Muhammad also attacked New York City Mayor David Dinkins, South African President Nelson Mandela and writer-scholar Cornel West.

Khalid Muhammad was made famous by people who wanted to use him as an example of what happens to black people who upset any group of white people. He was an unknown to most black Americans who watched transfixed as this obscure person received his 15 minutes of fame because of vile and foolish statements made against the powerful group, not for any comments he made that were offensive to any black people.

It would all be easier if hate speech were treated consistently. It is difficult to think of anything more offensive than expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler. It is true that during his campaign Schwarzenegger repudiated his previous pro-Hitler statement, but Jesse Jackson apologized for his “Hymietown” remark in a synagogue and he did so immediately after the remark was made public. Despite having made a gracious mea culpa without the usual lame rejoinder “If I offended anyone I am sorry” he was still asked to explain his words for many years afterward.

The calculus of the outrage industry is a simple one. It is acceptable to offend the powerless and unacceptable to offend the powerful. Don Imus and Howard Stern made racist remarks for years but their respective radio programs were popular and remained obligatory stops for politicians running for office.

All Americans have the right of free speech, or at least we did before the Patriot Act came into being. Anyone who is offended as an individual or as part of a group should certainly say so. Ariel Sharon’s comment that Jews run America is offensive. Most Jews are at the very least uncomfortable with such an assertion. The media should certainly have disseminated the remarks more widely. Perhaps then Jews could have expressed outrage that one of the most dangerous stereotypes expressed about them had been given credence by the Israeli Prime Minister.

Amiri Baraka still maintains that he was wrongly terminated from his $10,000 per year honorary position. He has sued Governor McGreevey but he has received very little public support in his fight. Part of the problem is Baraka’s refusal to concede that his statement was factually incorrect. That doesn’t justify the disproportionate reaction to his claim. It should have been sufficient for dissenting opinions to be expressed. Baraka’s comments touched on the rawest of nerves and anyone who felt compelled to speak should have been given very prominent opportunities to respond, negating the demand to eliminate an honorary government position.

Once again black people were forced to choose between defending someone they may not want to defend or standing by and allowing a disproportionate media pile-on to take place. Baraka is hardly alone in giving offense. Drug addicted, right-wing, radio personality Rush Limbaugh is always offensive. He manages to stay on the air and the President of the United States even calls him “a great American.”

All Americans should be committed to healthy public discourse. That cannot take place unless there is mutual respect and an acknowledgement that no hurt is more or less worthy of empathy than another. If everyone kept this thought in mind we would be less likely to express offensive thoughts or hesitate to speak out because the offense was directed at a group other than our own.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in .  Ms. Kimberley is a freelance writer living in New York City.  She can be reached via e-Mail at [email protected]. You can read more of Ms. Kimberley's writings at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/

May 13 2004
Issue 90

is published every Thursday.