The causes and consequences of the riot were lawlessness and antisemitism. Antisemitism was communicated through anti-Semitic slogans, and people explicitly proclaiming themselves the proud reincarnations of Hitler (signs with messages like “Hitler didn’t do his job”).The lawlessness occurred when the error made by the police caused the police to be accused of giving preferential treatment to the Jews. Yet according to a different source from Commentary magazine, written by Philip Gourevitch January 1st, 1993, it was stated that, “The previous day black rioters hurled rocks and bottles at a throng of Hasidim while policemen stood between the two groups, holding the line but doing nothing to stem the attack. The police were taking the
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The underlining causes of the riot were racial tension as well as an error made by the police since the police were accused of giving preferential treatment to the Jews. The riot brought forward the issues/differences in economic conditions of Jews and Blacks living in the same neighborhood. Racial tension and anti-Semitism had a strong presence in the country before the riot occurred, and the media preferred to talk about these hot topics. The “misplaced anger,” which Davis says causes the racial tension, goes hand in hand with misplaced attention by the media. Crown Heights, like many places in America, suffers from poor education, high levels of crime, gentrification, and corrupt and insufficient policing. Not only that, but the riot also brought up bias regarding the Black and Jewish communities. Two articles were written about the same event, both state different viewpoints and evidence regarding the situation. In the Atlantic, an article put together by Jeffrey Goldberg entitled “The Hard Truth About the Crown Heights Riots”, used an excerpt from Ari Goldman that …show more content…
The Jews were seen as having the political power that the African-Americans desired. Black leaders such as Louis Farrakhan, and Jesse Jackson went public with anti-Semitic comments. Adding to the hatred were the leaders of the South African anti-Apartheid movement who traveled throughout the United States as conquering heroes, and spreading Jew-hatred. For example, in 1984, Desmond Tutu publicly complained about American Jews having “an arrogance—the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support. Understandably Jewish/Black relations were already rocky as NY City entered the summer of 1991.On July 20, 1991, Leonard Jeffries of City College, who had a history of anti-Semitic slurs, presented a two-hour long speech claiming “rich Jews" financed the slave trade, Jews controlled the film industry (together with Italian mafia), and used that control to paint a brutal stereotype of
The underlining causes of the riot were racial tension as well as an error made by the police since the police were accused of giving preferential treatment to the Jews. The riot brought forward the issues/differences in economic conditions of Jews and Blacks living in the same neighborhood. Racial tension and anti-Semitism had a strong presence in the country before the riot occurred, and the media preferred to talk about these hot topics. The “misplaced anger,” which Davis says causes the racial tension, goes hand in hand with misplaced attention by the media. Crown Heights, like many places in America, suffers from poor education, high levels of crime, gentrification, and corrupt and insufficient policing. Not only that, but the riot also brought up bias regarding the Black and Jewish communities. Two articles were written about the same event, both state different viewpoints and evidence regarding the situation. In the Atlantic, an article put together by Jeffrey Goldberg entitled “The Hard Truth About the Crown Heights Riots”, used an excerpt from Ari Goldman that …show more content…
The Jews were seen as having the political power that the African-Americans desired. Black leaders such as Louis Farrakhan, and Jesse Jackson went public with anti-Semitic comments. Adding to the hatred were the leaders of the South African anti-Apartheid movement who traveled throughout the United States as conquering heroes, and spreading Jew-hatred. For example, in 1984, Desmond Tutu publicly complained about American Jews having “an arrogance—the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support. Understandably Jewish/Black relations were already rocky as NY City entered the summer of 1991.On July 20, 1991, Leonard Jeffries of City College, who had a history of anti-Semitic slurs, presented a two-hour long speech claiming “rich Jews" financed the slave trade, Jews controlled the film industry (together with Italian mafia), and used that control to paint a brutal stereotype of