Jewish Journal Aaron Bandler January 22, 2019
WATCH: Tamika Mallory Says White Jewish Women ‘Benefit From White Privilege’
Women’s March co-president Tamika Mallory suggested in a January 17 appearance of PBS’ “Firing Line” that white Jewish women “benefit from white privilege.”
Program host Margaret Hoover asked Mallory about her December statement to The New York Times that “we’ve all learned a lot about how while white Jews, as white people, uphold white supremacy, ALL Jews are targeted by it.”
Mallory responded by saying that the aforementioned statement was “an organizational statement.”
“If I was saying that out of my mouth, I would’ve said ‘All white-skinned individuals, including Jewish women, anyone who has white skin in America is able to benefit from white privilege, and white privilege is, in fact, part of white supremacy.’”
Margaret Hoover said that given the October shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, “when you accuse Jews of upholding white supremacy, it feels and seems inappropriate in the context of this mass white supremacist slaughter in a synagogue.”
“If you want to put it in the context of that particular issue, that incident which is a horrific incident in American history, then that’s fine, but if you want to talk about the overall context of how we exist in America, then I think it makes perfect sense,” Mallory replied.
When Hoover suggested to look at it in both contexts, Mallory responded, “It doesn’t change. The bottom line is that people who have white skin, including white Jews, benefit from white privilege. I mean, even Jewish people say that.”
Hoover then asked how Mallory could conflate white privilege and white supremacy. Mallory said that people who benefit from white privilege aren’t necessarily “akin to the KKK.”
“But if you have white privilege in this country, and particularly if you don’t address it, then you, again, are participating and upholding the system and unwilling to help us tear it down,” Mallory said.
StandWithUs executive director Michael Dickson tweeted, “Jewish women of all colors have been the victims of deadly Antisemitism for so long. They were not ‘privileged’, @TamikaDMallory , and your ignorant divisiveness is just plain Antisemitism.”
StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein tweeted in response to Mallory, “I am white. I have faced hostility because I am a Jew. What white privilege do you think I have?”
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