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Night-Call-Vilolence-and-Black-Anti-Semitism-July-31-1968-edited.mp3
Something has happened in America lately - call it the current political situation; here and in the Middle East - call it Social Media and the fact that nothing passes by unnoticed - call it In Search of the New Scapegoat. Blame it on Israel. Blame it on Hamas. It's a lot of things.
In the Middle East, a tenuous situation exploded and has affected most everyone all over the world as a result. Call it Slaughter of the Innocents; the people stuck in the middle; Jews and Muslims who have no other desire than to live a life and get through it reasonably unscathed - a perfect storm of movements and ideologies; both extreme, fed by the gasoline of persuasion and a desire for the extermination of "the other". The desire to paint it all with the same evil brush with the hopes of support from those easily persuaded without looking too closely or asking many questions, spotting the shades of grey - hoping a knee-jerk response is enough.
In the 60s it was much the same thing - the same in the 1950s, the 40s, the 30s - going back as far as history records. Antisemitism has always been part of the unspoken dialogue of our nation and of others - the compulsion to blame - blame a race - blame a religion - blame a nation of origin.
This time though, it's different - a government run by extremists attacked by a country overtaken by extremists; one bent on destroying the other - the retaliations only serving to radicalize those who weren't before - playing into the hands of those who only want chaos - a perfect storm with the added nuance of Social Media and an emboldened hatred.
And so, the wave of antisemitism has spread throughout the world; pitting friends against each other - uprooting families - radicalizing those who otherwise wouldn't consider violence - digging up old slogans - old denials - old postures. Replaying the same old story, retold a thousand times, hoping for this time, a different result.
In 1968, when this episode of Night Call aired it was in response to an increase of antisemitic urban violence in America brought on by the 1967 War in the Middle East and how the emergence of radical groups and a spreading message of blame and finger-pointing from the Black Community were dragging hatreds back out in the open.
Because Night Call was a call-in talk show, the opinions run the gamut - but as a point of interest and awareness
that the issue is one that has been played and replayed over and over throughout the years - and unless some serious soul-searching on both sides takes place, it will be repeated for eternity.
Here is that episode of Night Call: Violence and Black Antisemitism from July 31, 1968.
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