Thoughts on the Assault on Our Frum Way of Life that is Coming
What could be racist about a Band-Aid? If you ask that question, it just means that you are a product of “white privilege” and you will simply never understand…
Yes, the politically correct commissars have even come after Band-Aids. You see, Band-Aids are racist and Johnson & Johnson, the corporate giant that manufactures Band-Aids, wants to do teshuvah for its terrible insensitivity to people of color. After a pressure campaign by an organization associated with Black Lives Matter (BLM), Johnson & Johnson has announced that they “would start selling bandages meant to match different skin tones.”
Over the past several weeks, we have seen a massive, coordinated assault by the totalitarian ultra-left, which is making sure to use the murder of George Floyd as a springboard to promote intolerance and to try overwhelming corporate America.
The Band-Aid campaign came on the heels of a number of other pressure campaigns that have shown how powerful the BLM groups are and how cowardly most massive corporations are at even a hint of perceived racism on their part.
Did you know that skin-whitening products are also racist? Yes, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson have pulled all skin-whitening products off the shelves and apologized profusely for their terrible insensitivity after they received a letter from BLM activists that said: “We write this letter to you in the wake of anti-racist and anti-blackness movements against systemic, institutionalized racism and demand that Unilever take accountability for its product, Fair & Lovely. This product has built upon, perpetuated and benefited from internalized racism and promotes anti-blackness sentiments amongst all its consumers. The multi-million-dollar ads for the product have depicted whitish and dark complexion men and women as insecure who then become confident and successful in their everyday lives only by lightening the complexion of their skin with help of the product. Colorism, discrimination based on the color of your skin, is a direct by-product of racism affecting millions of people today, that fairness creams such as Fair & Lovely continue to advance…”
You see, my friends, if you don’t understand why these activists are so bent out of shape, it just shows how racist you really are.
I bet you had no idea what the awful sin of “Colorism” was, did you?
This has come in the wake of poor Aunt Jemima being pulled off the shelves after being part of your household for so many decades. Ditto for Uncle Ben from Uncle Ben’s rice. These products show systemic racism, in case you didn’t know.
I wonder if Mrs. Adler’s gefilte fish will be pulled because of the systemic anti-Semitism that it must represent.
I know that some of you might be rolling your eyes, but the truth is that as frum Yidden, we must be extremely wary of what is happening in America today.
The Radical Left is Exploiting the Crisis
The radical left is using this crisis for everything it is worth, and with surprisingly little opposition, it is bullying corporations, newsrooms and politicians to either toe the line or get axed.
This should be of great concern to us frum Jews.
I am reminded of a different crisis that was used by the left in Israel after Prime Minister Yitzchok Rabin was assassinated. The media, in cahoots with the left-wing in Israel, cynically decided to use the crisis to beat the right-wing into submission by claiming that anyone with right-wing views was a dangerous assassin just waiting to pounce. Black Lives Matter and others are utilizing the George Floyd murder in the same way.
The emergence of the far left as a vehicle to promote anarchy and chaos is showing itself in interesting ways, offering a bit of a view into what may be a difficult future for our community.
When Voicing an Opinion Leads to Hounding and Firing
Why is this relevant to us as frum Jews? Because ultra-left totalitarian instincts have risen in the wake of the Floyd murder. Now, simply put, you are not allowed to even voice an alternative opinion to the Leftist orthodoxy that is in vogue, and if you do, you have no zechus kiyum. You will be hounded and fired, and no number of groveling apologies will help.
Terry Crews is a former NFL player who today is an actor. He is black. He is a religious Christian. He recently tweeted, “If you are a child of G-d, you are my brother and sister. I have family of every race, creed and ideology. We must ensure #blacklivesmatter doesn’t morph into #blacklivesbetter.”
Sounds pretty normal and innocuous, no?
Jason Whitlock, a former football player and sportscaster who happens to be black and also a religious Christian, commented, “The tweet [by Crews] sparked the kind of massive backlash we’ve come to expect when any influencer dares to deviate from the pre-approved racial narrative popularized via social media.”
Twitter’s racial gatekeepers unleashed thousands of critical tweets directed at Crews. The mainstream media followed the lead of the Silicon Valley social media app, publishing and broadcasting stories of the “backlash” Crews endured for his “tame tweet.”
Whitlock explains: “If your point of view is driven by your religious beliefs…the expression of your religious values put you at odds with Joe Biden’s and Black Twitter’s definition of blackness. I’ve lived this experience throughout my 30-year media career. I’ve rejected politics and a political identity. As I’ve written previously, my worldview is driven by my religious faith and American patriotism. There’s a tax for that. Twitter is the IRS for Christians.”
Selling Frum Life for…A Pot of Lentils?!
Whitlock’s comments corroborate what we have seen coming for a long time as we observe the radical left.
Make no mistake about it: Religion is one of the next things on the chopping block. When religious sensitivities that are halachically non-negotiable are deemed “archaic,” “racially insensitive,” “chauvinistic,” “xenophobic,” “insufficiently sensitive to minorities,” and “improperly cruel to animals,” we will not be given a choice. We will be thrown under the bus like dogs, just like Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Band-Aids, skin-whitening cream, and anyone who dares protest the orthodoxy espoused by the progressive apparatchiks on Twitter and in the mainstream media.
The fact that the overwhelming concentration of frum Jews live in very blue and progressive states is even more reason for concern.
We all grew up hearing stories about how our fellow Yidden in Russia were made into criminals just for teaching their children “Shema Yisroel,” for teaching that there is a Creator in the world. The communist apparatchiks used all kinds of euphemisms to criminalize the basic act of teaching Torah and Torah values to children.
Of course, I am not saying that America, at this point, can compare to Stalin’s Russia, but the seeds of totalitarian instinct that not only disagrees and not only doesn’t tolerate an alternative viewpoint but seeks to criminalize and destroy any smidgen of dissent should raise red flags. While we must daven that our worst fears will not materialize, we must also prepare for an unprecedented onslaught on our way of life, r”l.
This means forging new alliances and being far more wary of supporting progressive politicians – even at the local level – who offer goodies to us or our mosdos to bribe us to support them. Any support that we give to the Left and certainly the progressives may come to haunt us.
Let us not sell our frum way of life for a pot of lentils.
