Daily Archives: November 13, 2021

Earlier this year, Twitter announced it was looking into its algorithms to learn if its platform had been causing unintentional harms. Now, the social media platform has published its initial findings, and it turns out, the sites algorithms boosts content from the political right, though its not quite sure why.

This trend was spotted in six out of the seven countries it studied, which included Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US. The researchers honed in on if Twitters timeline favored political tweets from elected officials, as well as if certain political groups had their opinions amplified.

Tweets about political content from elected officials, regardless of party or whether the party is in power, do see algorithmic amplification when compared to political content on the reverse chronological timeline, researcher Rumman Chowdhury wrote on Twitter.

In six out of seven countries, tweets posted by political right elected officials are algorithmically amplified more than the political left. Right-leaning news outlets (defined by third parties), see greater amplification compared to left-leaning.

However, Twitter has yet to figure out why this is the case. According to Engadget, the study posited that it could be due to the right and left using different strategies on Twitter, though it said more research would have to be done to gain more insight into the discrepancy.

While this news may re-enforce some users views about social media not being a level playing ground for all views and opinions, Chowdhury felt algorithmic amplification is not problematic by default.

The team behind the study emphasized that the findings do not support the hypothesis that algorithmic personalization amplifies extreme ideologies more than mainstream political views.

Well, if more isnt done to determine why alt-right views are being favored by its algorithm, users on Twitter may not buy the story of fairness and equality the company is selling.

[via Engadget, cover image via Mano Kors / Shutterstock.com]

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Twitter Admits Its Platform Boosts Alt-Right Content But ...

Early in 2021, the Red, White and Blueprint media company was hot. In addition to posting docuseries episodes and podcasts, RW&B was known for widely spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and stirring up trouble with Shasta County politics, while supporting the now-faltering movement to recall three Shasta County supervisors.

The first docuseries episode, published in March, attracted more than 53,000 views. Episode 6, however, released in October, garnered just 2,700 views.

The podcasts, which consist of roundtable discussions between RW&B co-owners Carlos Zapata and producer Jon Knight, along with regulars Woody Clendenen and Lani Bangay and different guests, has faced the same fate of declining numbers.

A few months ago, the podcasts viewership numbers surpassed 1,000, but the most recent one, which went live on November 1, has less than 200 views and just 2 comments since it aired to a peak live viewership of around 25 people.

It is no secret that Red, White and Blueprint has gone cold and is in search of a post-Shasta-County-recall-attempt identity and a fresh cash flow as the recall movement barely gathered enough signatures to recall one of the three targeted supervisors, Leonard Moty, former Redding police chief and District 2 Supervisor.

Like Red, White and Blueprint, Zapatas popularity may also be on the skids. He was initially ultra-popular among many right-wing circles when he threatened the Shasta County Board of Supervisors with violence in the streets if they continued to go along with Gov. Gavin Newsoms pandemic mandates, despite the fact that few businesses in the county closed, and none were fined.

But now Zapata possesses a misdemeanor charge for disturbing the peace while fighting for his role in the May 4 attack on vocal recall opponent Nathan Pinkney. Hes on probation and must attend court-ordered anger-management classes.

Some sources privy to internal RW&B happenings, who asked to remain anonymous, have characterized Zapata as an egotistical megalomaniac. This observation leaves others speculating that Zapatas notable personality issues are in part what chased homegrown news reporter Courtney Kreider away from RW&B, even after Zapata allegedly lured her from a promising broadcast news job in Nebraska with the promise to be RW&Bs front-line media representative.

Other anonymous RW&B insiders have also said that Kreider, who broke ties with Red, White and Blueprint in May, no longer views Zapata in a positive light.

Upon being contacted for this article, although Kreider did not specifically mention Zapata, she did respond in writing that there were very good people involved in the Red, White and Blueprint with good hearts.

Regarding the Red, White and Blueprint movement, Kreider said that for some, It turned into a public battle driven by ego, and unfortunately not always facts.

Kreiders statement begs the question about whether one of the egos in question may belong to Zapata.

Although Kreider agreed that Red, White and Blueprint does appear to be losing steam, she also spoke of a continued, common interest.

One thing RW&B and I will always share is the disgust with government overreach and those who feed at the altar of liberal media.

Regarding COVID-19, Kreider believes that the mainstream news is wrong to encourage people to be afraid of the disease. She also said that as someone who does not have children, she has not had to change her lifestyle because of COVID-19.

For example, Kreider said that her gym has remained opened, and she continued getting together with her friends and family.

I lived my life the same way I presented on the news, without fear she said.

During happier times for RW&B last March, Woody Clendenen, Congressman Doug LaMalfa, Courtney Kreider, Carlos Zapata and Jeremy Edwardson attend the Red, White and Blueprint premier for Episode 1.

Top photo: Carlos Zapata and Courtney Kreider on stage in April at RW&Bs first fundraiser at the Harmon Ranch in Palo Cedro. Bottom left: Kreider poses with Woody Clendenen and Carlos Zapata at the event. Bottom Right: Kreider poses with an American flag as she prepares to go on stage with Zapata.

Early on in the RW&B movement, Zapata was admired and well-received by a number of alt-right North State citizens as he exploited the fears and anxieties surrounding COVID-19. However, as the holiday season approaches, it appears that supporters may be moving on, away from Zapata and his agendas. Some former followers may be weary of the Zapata drama, and look forward to hanging out with their families for a normal holiday season, shopping for turkeys and hosting holiday meals. Others may be readying themselves for Black Friday deals and are excited about putting up Christmas trees.

While lately Zapata has complained on social media about the North State, and has even threatened to move to Texas, many Shasta County residents continue to face real struggles and serious challenges.

The cost of living has increased dramatically, leaving many rural folks in dire financial straits. Many working- and middle-class people who worked on the front lines as essential employees through the COVID-19 pandemic are tired. Some have lost their jobs. All the while, Red, White and Blueprint has offered them nothing in the form of tangible help.

While Zapata rambles on about freedom, liberty and tyranny using many of the the same buzz words he spoke at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in late August of 2020, and just as he did on InfoWars while being interviewed by Alex Jones, and just as he has done in several Red, White and Blueprint productions, the question remains: What is Carlos Zapata really doing for Shasta County?

Many people just want to get through the holiday season without drama, and Carlos Zapata is drama personified.

Still, Zapata seems oblivious. In his most recent podcast, Zapata started the show by saying, Its funny, like the deeper you get into this fight, the faster that things tend to happen.

While he was clearly referring to the recall movement, he could have just as easily been describing his own increasing irrelevance.

Mike Cendejas appeared as the guest on the most recent Red, White and Blueprint podcast. Last summer, he appeared in a Red, White and Blueprint merchandise advertisement with Jon Knight, Woody Clendenen, and a few other men and women carrying guns and assault rifles.

Left photo: Mike Cendejas carries an assault rifle while appearing in a Red, White & Blueprint advertisement for merchandise. Images shared by Carlos Zapata on Instagram.

Top, from left, Carlos Zapata and Woody Clendenen. Bottom, from left, Jon Knight, Mike Cendejas and Lani Bangay.

In his Facebook profile picture, Cendejas sports a Red, White and Blueprint shirt emblazoned with DYOS (Drain Your Own Swap) as well as a hat imprinted with the RW&B logo.

When tyranny becomes law, resistance becomes duty are the words written around Cendejass Facebook profile picture. In one photo he shows off a large tattoo that stretches across his back that features the preamble to the United States Constitution, atop a large bald eagle carrying the Liberty Bell.

Top Left and Right: Mike Cendejas Facebook profile pictures. Bottom Left: Cendejas as guest on a recent Red, White & Blueprint podcast.

Cendejas is an anti-masker, and is against requiring people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. During the podcast he described how he grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and moved to the North State in 2005 because of its natural beauty, and because he liked country music and had some friends in high school who barrel raced. Despite growing up in greater Los Angeles, Cendejas, who appears to be in his late 30s to early 40s, spoke during the podcast with somewhat of a Southern drawl.

Like Cendejas, Zapata also lived in Southern California as a kid before his family moved to Sonoma County, long before his arrival to Palo Cedro.

After briefly discussing the regions natural beauty, the group quickly transitioned to speaking about the people in Northern California.

The people really are different, Zapata said, adding, Were a different breed up here.

Not to say that theres not people like us down south; there is, Zapata said. Its just that theres a lot more of us up here.

Zapata also claimed that the people in Northern California value family and freedom.

Unsurprisingly, the group agreed with Zapatas divisive and ignorant anti-urban rhetoric.

Cendejas jumped into the conversation by noting that people in Northern California are, more willing to be a person to a person, as opposed to trying to get ahead on someone else and, You can shake a mans hand and realize that deal is gonna be what they say it is.

As the podcast progressed, Cendejas said he planned to attend a future school board meeting in Cottonwood, explaining, Its always been the moms deal to go to these things, while he worked and made the money, and that he wanted to be a good stand-up Christian man and show my boys that when it comes time to stand for something no matter whos in your way or what the obstacle is, you gotta stand for it.

Zapata chimed in and said it was important for regular men like Cendejas to stand up and attend school board meetings, illuminating yet again, how the Red, White and Blueprint podcast discussions are often drenched in gendered, and often sexist and toxically masculine language.

Were the last of a dying breed, Cendejas said, adding that his current anger is a result of state mask and vaccine requirements.

Needless to say, the men on the podcast agreed with Cendejass take on masks and the vaccine. Zapata went as far to state, I dont think you have the freedom, in my book, you know, to give your kid the shot.

Zapata has done his research, and, as he stated, even reads too much sometimes, and his conclusion is that the vaccine is killing children. Zapata also claimed that the vaccine may lead to a new wave of childhood strokes.

The Freedom Coalition

As the discussion turned to the nonexistent threat of Marxism, the men spoke about the Freedom Coalition meeting held a few days before the podcast on Oct. 28 at the Faith Community Church in Redding. The Freedom Coalition has been around since at least early 2021.

The Freedom Coalitions goal is to unite all of the far-right factions in the North State into one Christian-based alliance. The coalition contains seven committees (church, government, education, business, media, family, and arts and entertainment). Each committee is led by a different person, and the public is invited to join any one they wish.

In this region, Woody Clendenen, who has been involved with the coalition since at least March of 2021, is the head of the government committee.

Like, Red, White and Blueprint, the goal of the Freedom Coalition is to make change, county by county, and, as one of its spokespersons, Patty Plumb, cited at the meeting, wage a fight against so-called Marxism. Plumb, who is also the leader of the secessionist movement known as New California State Shasta, spoke for about 45 minutes on Oct. 28 as she outlined the different committees, yet she failed to provide any examples of the threat of Marxism.

Plumb also reminded the audience that the Second Amendment is available if the First Amendment has not been fully exhausted.

Patty Plumb at Freedom Coalition meeting and slides from her PowerPoint presentation.

After sharing that she and her husband have obtained their concealed weapons permits (CCW), Plumb quipped, Im a really good shot, I have to say.

The crowd sitting inside the church responded with laughter as Plumb stood before her Power Point presentation projected on a screen and a large crucifix.

The CCW thing was so fun because my husband and I have birthdays that are two weeks apart, so for my birthday, he got me a handgun, Plumb said. For his birthday, I got him patio furniture.

Plumb paused as the crowd laughed yet again, as she concluded her story with, So we sit on our patio and we clean our guns.

Patty Plumb and Thomas Fox discuss guns at the Freedom Coalition.

Thomas Fox, a Weaverville-based lawyer who dabbles in far-right politics, later took the stage and added his own statements, including those about firearms.

I believe in the Second Amendment so much you cant even see my gun right now. You can see my phone, Fox said, in reference to the phone strapped to his belt. If you dont believe me Im going to show you the other side.

He never showed the other side.

The talk of guns was reminiscent of a March 2021 Freedom Coalition meeting in Live Oak, approximately100 miles south of Redding, during which Church of Glad Tidings pastor Dave Bryan showed off his belt buckle pistol.

The Freedom Coalition is gaining momentum precisely as the recall movement and Red, White and Blueprint flounders on the brink of failure.

Like the leaders of the Red, White and Blueprint, the Freedom Coalition leaders have expressed zero interest in mobilizing against the high poverty rate in Shasta County, or homelessness, or citizens food insecurities, or a wide range of real working- and middle-class problems as the holiday season approaches. Both organizations, after all, are run by privileged, mostly white, middle- and upper-class individuals who have the luxury of free time to protest against masks and a vaccine designed to save lives.

As many know, COVID-19 is the real enemy, not Karl Marx, and deaths from it are hitting rural Republican spaces harder than anywhere else as the gap widens between counties won by Biden and Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Just yesterday in Shasta County the public health department released information that reported seven more deaths due to the virus Monday, bringing the death count to 27 in seven days.

The Freedom Coalition plans to meet every Thursday night at the Faith Community Church in Redding. These meetings are ideal for those wishing to gather with the same old minority of far-right wingers and aging Tea Partiers who have acted as a squeaky wheel in Shasta County politics over the last few years; now re-branded under a new name.

Freedom Coalition poster.

Back to the latest RW&B podcast, where, after the group talked about the Freedom Coalition, and the so-called threat of Marxism, Zapata led the men into a discussion about how he and his kind are actually an incredibly inclusive bunch.

Zapata said that while people on the outside accuse his State of Jefferson, militia-friendly gun-toting anti-vaxxer community of Lets Go Brandon -shouting homophobic North Staters of being divisive, Zapata believes otherwise.

Were actually really inclusive, Zapata said, way more inclusive than they are.

By they Zapata means liberals and leftists.

Zapata also claimed he is willing to meet in the middle with people. However, this claim, which he has stated before, rings hollow when measured against his past words and behavior.

This Carlos Zapata Instagram post was among evidence submitted by Nolan Weber, Shasta County Deputy District Attorney, during the trial that found Carlos Zapata, Elizabeth Bailey and Christopher Meagher guilty on four of five charges regarding their assault upon comic Nathan Pinkney.

Carlos Zapatas social media posts address the 2nd Amendment.

Carlos Zapata offered positive words on social media about the Proud Boys after they showed up to support him during his court arraignment.

After the group discussed a hodgepodge of topics that ranged from gender and sex education in schools to the importance of attending school board meetings, they joked around for a few minutes.

Clendenen joked that he, as a member of the militia, has his eyes on the FBI. Jon Knight joked that he was on the government list, probably because he is known to have attended the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. Zapata joked that he, too, was on the list for spilling some water on some piece of shit kid at a bar and that he was happy for getting kicked off Facebook and Instagram.

Zapatas court case and conviction for disturbing the peace while fighting for his role in the attack on Nathan Pinkney last May was the groups final podcast topic.

Zapata started the discussion with an announcement, making it publicly known that he planned to attend the Shasta County Board of Supervisor meeting the following day on Nov. 2. This statement came across as if he were proactively claiming the space before Nathan Pinkney, since part of Zapatas trial sentencing requires he stays 100 yards away from Pinkney. Despite that legal fact with real legal consequences, Zapata said if Pinkney showed up at the meeting, Zapata expected someone to remove Pinkney from the board chambers.

What actually occurred the following day was far different from Zapatas boastful prediction. Prior to the meetings start, Pinkney was seated in the front row of the board chambers. Zapata entered the chambers momentarily with his son, but ended up leaving without incident after being quietly spoken to by a Shasta County marshal.

As an aside, this new marshal has been stationed inside the board chambers since the departure of the former deputy Greg Walker, who ceased working as a Shasta County Sheriff Deputy shortly after a series of stories appeared about him here on A News Cafe.

After he was no doubt asked to leave the board chambers, Zapata was seen talking on his phone and pacing outside the Shasta County Administrative Center. He never returned to the chambers, even after Pinkney later left before the meetings end.

One of the last points Zapata made in the podcast about the trial was that it felt good to be finished with it, although Zapata said he was was not ecstatic about the way it all went down, adding that the justice system is, out to get yah.

Zapata opined that people are guilty until proven innocent, and that the Shasta County District Attorney took the case against him a so-called productive member of society who has never been in trouble instead of going after real criminals.

Is walking up to somebody a crime? asked Zapata in reference to the video of him, Christopher Meagher and Elizabeth Bailey approaching Pinkney at the back door of Pinkneys place of employment before the two latter individuals Zapatas friends viciously assaulted Pinkney as he retreated inside the restaurant. Meagher and Bailey were convicted of disturbing the peace while fighting and battery. Meagher received jail time for punching Pinkney.

Zapata claimed that he, Meagher and Bailey approached Pinkney because hed sent Zapata text messages.

However, if, as he claimed, Zapata was walking up to Pinkney to talk, why did Bailey grab Pinkney and rip his shirt as he walked away, just before Meagher punched him?

Despite the jurys decision to find the three co-defendants guilty on four of the District Attorneys five charges, Zapata said during the podcast that, The jury knew what a piece of shit he [Pinkney] is.

Zapata also said that the community now knows what a piece of garbage Pinkney is.Zapata expounded upon that thought.

I dont care what I say anymore, hes a piece of shit, Zapata said. If hes working right now in this town, its only for a little bit, you know, until we find out where he works, and they fire him because people need to know that thats not the kind of person we want in this community.

Carlos Zapata, Christopher Meagher, & Elizabeth Bailey walking up abruptly on Pinkney and Meaghers assault.

Without citing any examples, Zapata claimed that Pinkney terrorizes people, gets businesses shut down, wants to be a pain in peoples asses before threatening Pinkney publicly on his podcast by saying that Pinkney was not going to be in this community much longer.

Zapata then named where Pinkney had been working, the Airpark Caf in Redding, as the group joked they should show up at his workplace.

Pinkney recently revealed through his social media accounts that he worked at the Airpark Caf, but the joke was on Zapata and the others during the podcast discussion as Pinkney had not worked there for some time, something he revealed only after the podcast.

In a video shared by Pinkney on Facebook in which he responded to some of Zapatas podcast remarks, Pinkney minced no words, starting by referring to Pinkneys potential future civil lawsuit against Zapata.

Keep giving me shit to use in court because Im going to own your fucking restaurant one day and Im going to turn it into a socialist fucking soup kitchen called Bidens, Pinkney said in his social media video.

Read more:

Courtney Kreider Responds to Sagging Popularity of Red ...

When Stephen Bannon called his website, Breitbart, the platform for the alt-right this summer, he was referring to a movement that promotes white nationalism and argues that the strength of the United States is tied to its ethnic European roots. Its members mostly stick to trolling online, but much of what they do isnt original or new: Their taunts often involve vicious anti-Semitism. They make it clear that Jews are not included in their vision of a perfect, white, ethno-state.

On the opposite side of American politics, many progressive groups are preparing to mount a rebellion against Donald Trump. They see solidarity among racial minorities as their goal, and largely blame Trumps election on racism and white supremacy. Three-quarters of American Jews voted against Trump, and many support this progressive vision. Some members of these groups, though, have singled out particular Jews for their collusion with oppressive powercriticisms that range from inflammatory condemnations of Israel to full-on conspiracies about global Jewish media and banking cabals.

These are rough sketches of two camps, concentrated at the margins of U.S. political culture. On the extreme right, Jews are seen as impurea faux-white race that has tainted America. And on the extreme left, Jews are seen as part of a white-majority establishment that seeks to dominate people of color. Taken together, these attacks raise an interesting question: Are Jews white?

Jewish identity in America is inherently paradoxical and contradictory, says Eric Goldstein, an associate professor of history at Emory University. What you have is a group that was historically considered, and considered itself, an outsider group, a persecuted minority. In the space of two generations, theyve become one of the most successful, integrated groups in American societyby many accounts, part of the establishment. And theres a lot of dissonance between those two positions.

As pro- and anti-Trump movements jockey to realize their agendas, the question of Jews and whiteness illustrates the high stakesand dangersof racialized politics. Jews, who do not fit neatly into American racial categories, challenge both sides visions for the country. Over time, Jews have become more integrated into American societya process scholars sometimes refer to as becoming white. It wasnt the skin color of Ashkenazi Jews of European descent that changed, though; it was their status. Trumps election has convinced some Jews that they remain in the same position as they have throughout history: perpetually set apart from other groups through their Jewishness, and thus left vulnerable.

From the earliest days of the American republic, Jews were technically considered white, at least in a legal sense. Under the Naturalization Act of 1790, they were considered among the free white persons who could become citizens. Later laws limited the number of immigrants from certain countries, restrictions which were in part targeted at Jews. But unlike Asian and African immigrants in the late 19th century, Jews retained a claim to being Caucasian, meaning they could win full citizenship status based on their putative race.

Culturally, though, the racial status of Jews was much more ambiguous. Especially during the peak of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Jews lived in tightly knit urban communities that were distinctly marked as separate from other American cultures: They spoke Yiddish, they published their own newspapers, they followed their own schedule of holidays and celebrations. Those boundaries were further enforced by widespread anti-Semitism: Jews were often excluded from taking certain jobs, joining certain clubs, or moving into certain neighborhoods. Insofar as whiteness represents acceptance in Americas dominant culture, Jews were not yet white.

If youre a secular Jew, how are you a Jew? It has to be through your cultural or ethnic identity.

Over time, though, they assimilated. Just like other white people, they fled to the suburbs. They took advantage of educational opportunities like the G.I. bill. They became middle class. They thought they were becoming white, says Lewis Gordon, a professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut. Many of them stopped speaking Yiddish. Many of them stopped going to synagogue. Many of them stopped wearing the accoutrements of Jewishness.

Jews think about questions of race in their own lives with incredible diversity. There are many different kinds of Jews: Orthodox, secular, Reform; Jews by birth, Jews by choice, Jews by conversion. Some Jews who arent particularly religious may identify as white, but others may feel that their Jewishness is specifically linked to their ethnic inheritance. If youre a secular Jew, how are you a Jew? It has to be through your cultural or ethnic identity, Gordon says. Whereas if youre a religious Jew, you would argue that youre a Jew primarily through your religious practices. As Jews assimilated into American culture, ironically, investment in religiosity paved the way for greater white identification of many Jews, he says, allowing more religiously observant Jews to think of themselves as white, rather than ethnically Jewish.

Goldstein sees it differently. Whiteness and engagement with the categories of white and black are a reflection of a level of acculturation into a larger society, he says. The Orthodox are not just religiously different [from other Jews], but socially separated, he adds. They tend to see the world through the lens of their own community. In other words, their categories for understanding themselves and others might not be white and nonwhite; theyre more likely to be Jewish and non-Jewish.

Other Jews might not think about race much, in the same way that a lot of white folks in America dont think about race much. Lacey Schwartz, a filmmaker born to a Jewish mother and an African American father, but who long believed she was born to two white parents, experienced this firsthand. I grew up in a space where we were all white, but it was almost like we didnt have a race, she says. These days, she works as an educator in Jewish communities, trying to help people talk about what race and racial diversity meantopics they havent necessarily thought through before. Within the Jewish community, we have to talk about whiteness, because people have to understand where they fit in, she says.

Its important for Jews to become more aware of their white privilege.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, argued that Jews do grapple with raceand in fact, they have been at the forefront of struggles for racial equality like the civil-rights movement. Theres no doubt that the vast majority of American Jews live with what we would call white privilege, he says. They arent looked at twice when they walk into a store. They arent looked at twice by someone in uniform That obviously isnt a privilege that people of color have the luxury of enjoying. And yet, even though light-skinned Jews may benefit from being perceived as white, [Jewish] identity is shaped by these exogenous forcesostracism, and exile, and other forms of persecution [like] extermination. I think there is this sense of shared struggle programmed into the DNA of the Jewish people.

As much variability as there is in how Jews might see their own whiteness, theres even greater variability in how others see them. For many Americans, if theres a secular European Jew walking [down the street], Americans are not going to see the difference between a Polish Jew and a Polish Catholic, Gordon says.

For those who do see Jews as a distinctive group, many complicated factors might shape their views. For example: If Jews generally lack racial awareness, as Schwartz contends, that may exacerbate the hostility of the far left. I think its important for Jews to become more aware of their white privilege[its] one of the problems Jews have had in relating to African Americans, Goldstein says. This has often come up specifically over the issue of Israel: Some Jews have found themselves at odds, for example, with those black activists who describe Israels actions toward Palestinians as a form of global white supremacy, interpreting that racialized language as offensive.

Theres also ambiguity in whether non-Jews perceive Jewish distinctiveness in terms of race or religion. When anti-Semites [talk about] Jews, they mean a racial category, Gordon argues. I think theyre looking at Jews the way an anti-black racist looks at a light-skinned black person. In working with Jewish groups around the country, he says, he has found that religious Jews are much more likely to view anti-Semitism as a form of religious discrimination. But he doesnt see it that way. Anti-religion is more like between Protestants and Catholics or between a Zen Buddhist and Buddhist, or conflicts that Reform Jews have with Orthodox Jews, Gordon says. I see anti-Semitism as a racism. I dont see anti-Semitism as simply about being anti-religion.

The vast majority of American Jews94 percent, according to Pewdescribe themselves as white in surveys. But many Jews of colorblack, Asian, and even Mizrahi Jewsmight identify their race in more ambiguous terms. Whiteness isnt a simple, static category that can be determined by a quick question from a pollster.

White is a kind of cultural constructa way of thinking of yourself, and a way that other people think about you, Goldstein says. Whiteness itself is a very fluid and contested category. Race is not just a matter of skin pigmentation or ethnic background. It is determined by both individuals and their observers, and the boundaries of whos in or out of one group or another change constantly.

Its not that unprecedented that groups of disillusioned, disaffected populations of workers lash out and use Jews as a scapegoat.

So, are Jews white? Theres really no conclusion except that its complicated, Goldstein says. This is not the kind of question that searches for an answer, though. Its a question designed to illuminate. It can be difficult to understand why many, although not all, Jews are scared of whats to come in a Trump administration. Even Goldstein, who studies Judaism and anti-Semitism for a living, says he finds it hard to believe that Jews are in any real danger of losing their status in American society. Jews today are integrated into all of the mainstream institutions of American life: Theyve held the presidencies of all the major universities that once restricted their entrance; they are disproportionately represented in all the branches of government.

And yet, no matter how much prestige Jews may amass, their status is always ambiguous. White is not a skin color, but a category marking power. American Jews do have power, but they are also often viewed with suspicion; and having power is no assurance of protection. According to the FBIs hate-crime statistics, a majority of religiously motivated hate-crime offenses are committed against Jews each year. This has been the case every year since the FBI first began reporting hate-crime statistics in 1995, when more than 80 percent of religiously motivated crimes were against Jews. These days, that percentage is closer to 50 percenta sign not that Jews are safer, but that other groups have been increasingly targeted.

Its not that unprecedented that groups of disillusioned, disaffected populations of workers lash out and use Jews as a scapegoat for problems that are really caused by a quickly changing society, Goldstein says. It is instructive to know that Jews have been in situations in which they were integrated and had status, and that hasnt necessarily protected them. Sometimes, it makes them vulnerable.

Are Jews white? is another way of asking, Are Jews safe in this unknown future that is to come? To some, it seems unthinkable that they would not be. To others, it seems unthinkable that they would.

Would you like to respond to this piece in a substantive way? Please email your response to hello@theatlantic.com. (We may publish it in Notes.)

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The Alt-Right Reopens Questions of Jewish Whiteness - The ...

If I was planning a coup detat and the overthrow of the government of the United States of America, Id not really go out of my way to blab about what I knew, before or after the event.

If what they say is true about Steve Bannon, a man best thought of as Donald Trumps Svengali, then I too wouldnt be cooperating that much with the authorities about what I did or did not know about the protests (to put things euphemistically) at the Capitol on 6 January.

Whether it was a pro-Trump rally where things got a bit out of hand or an attempt to seize control of the levers of government and to frustrate the ratification of a democratic election is what is in question at the the various Congressional inquiries now underway. What was Bannon doing in Washington on 6 January? And what did Bannon mean when he predicted, a day before, that all hell would be let loose? We all have our views.

From Bannons point of view, stonewalling must be the best option. Saying as little as possible is a constitutional right, arguably, and no one can actually force him to tell anyone anything. He can use his high-profile platform to argue, if hes minded to engage, that the whole process is illegitimate, being conducted by an unlawfully elected fake assembly, and motivated by a desire to protect a Democrat president elected through fraudulent means. Donald Trump, in this version of reality, is still the president of the United States, and Bannon and his allies only recognise his authority.

Therefore, Bannon might point out, hes under no obligation to hand anything over or give up any information to a body, the US Congress, that is operating under false pretences and has itself usurped the true democratic government of the US the Trump administration. Indeed, silence would add to his aura of power and mystery. It gives him leverage, too what will the establishment offer in return for his information?

The worst and also the best thing that could happen to Bannon is that Congress finds him guilty of contempt, sends him to jail for a year and slaps a $100,000 fine on him. The whole Bannon shtick, absurdly, is that hes the little guy being bullied by a fraudulent, selfish, crooked elite looking, as ever, after their own interests, and terrified of the people and the peoples continuing president, Donald J Trump.

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Nothing suits Bannon more than to be seen as the victim, even if his travails are entirely self-inflicted. Nothing would be more satisfying than a one-year spell in prison, where, like some notable figures from the past, he would spend his time writing his memoirs and setting out his political philosophy and patriotic mission.

Congress presently seems set on making Steve Bannon into a sort of conservative Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner banged up for his beliefs, victimised for his defiance of an illegitimate regime. No doubt he will do well out of it.

You wonder, though, what might happen if the Congress ever tried to come after Trump personally theyve already tried to get their hands on personal records and Trump tells them to get lost and they send him to prison too. Trump and Bannon might share a cell, assuming the Justice Department can locate a cell big enough for these two outsize egos. It would be an unusual place to launch the Republicans 2024 presidential bid.

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Nothing would suit Steve Bannon more than to be an alt-right martyr in prison - The Independent

Donald Trumps former adviser Steve Bannon has been charged with contempt of Congress after failing to appear before a committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

The justice department said Bannon had been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts: refusing to appear for a deposition and refusing to provide documents in response to the committees subpoena.

The CNN channel reported that an arrest warrant for Bannon had already been signed by a judge, while MSNBC said he was expected to give himself up on Monday and appear in court that afternoon.

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the indictment reflected the justice departments steadfast commitment to ensuring it adhered to the rule of law, no matter who is accused of a crime.

Since my first day in office, I have promised justice department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law, Garland said.

Each count carries between 30 days and a year in jail. The indictment the first for criminal contempt of Congress in nearly 40 years will come as a relief to Trump critics who feared that Garland was being overly cautious and moving too slowly.

Bannon, 67, is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News, which he once described as the platform of the alt-right, a movement that embraced racism and antisemitism. He became chairman of Trumps 2016 election campaign and then his White House chief strategist but lasted less than a year.

Bannon pushed false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and prophesied on his podcast on 5 January: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. That evening he was part of a gathering of Trump allies at the Willard hotel in Washington that the House of Representatives committee has called the war room.

That naturally made him a person of interest but Bannons lawyer told the House committee in October that he would not cooperate, citing an assertion of executive privilege by Trump. Legal experts were quick to point out that Bannon was a private citizen at the time of the insurrection so this argument had little merit.

Last month the House voted 229-202 to hold Bannon in contempt. Nine Republicans supported the resolution.

The 6 January committee was created by the House to investigate the attack, in which a pro-Trump mob rampaged through the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Joe Bidens 2020 election victory over Trump.

Some of the committees work has been stymied by a lack of cooperation from top Trump administration officials who have refused to comply with subpoenas to testify or turn over documents.

Earlier on Friday, Trumps former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows failed to appear before the committee. He also faces a criminal referral to the justice department for contempt.

The committee chairman, Bennie Thompson, and vice-chair, Liz Cheney, said in a joint statement: Its unfortunate that Mr Meadows has chosen to join a very small group of witnesses who believe they are above the law and are defying a Select Committee subpoena outright.

The Select Committee has talked with more than 150 individuals who are engaging and cooperating with our probe and providing critical details. And while were determined to get all the information were seeking, Mr Meadows, Mr Bannon, and others who go down this path wont prevail in stopping the Select Committees effort getting answers for the American people about January 6th.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican on the committee, told CNN he hoped the indictment of Bannon would send a chilling message to other subpoena recipients.

It sends a really important message to future invited witnesses You cannot ignore Congress, Kinzinger said.

Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary, tweeted: The only way to make the indictment of Bannon truly meaningful and a strong message to the others defying the law is to remand him prison, no bail available. That will send the message. Hope the Judge has been watching all this.

Bannons attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

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Steve Bannon indicted for refusal to comply with Capitol attack subpoena - The Guardian

Virginias Spotsylvania County School Board this week voted unanimously to have books with sexually explicit material removed from school library shelves. For two members of the school board, this didnt go far enough; they wanted to see the books incinerated. Im sure weve got hundreds of people out there that would like to see those books before we burn them, said one of the members, Kirk Twigg. Just so we can identify, within our community, that we are eradicating this bad stuff.

This was just one example of an aggressive new censoriousness tearing through America, as the campaign against critical race theory expands into a broader push to purge school libraries of books that affront conservative sensibilities regarding race and gender. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom, told me that during her 20 years with the organization, theres always been a steady hum of censorship, and the reasons have shifted over time. But Ive never seen the number of challenges weve seen this year.

In Texas and South Carolina, Republican governors have called for action on obscene content in school libraries. Public schools in Virginia Beach have pulled books including Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye out of their libraries pending the results of a challenge by conservative school board members. Schools in North Kansas City, Mo., have done the same with books including the acclaimed memoir Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and All Boys Arent Blue, a book of essays about growing up gay and Black by George M. Johnson. In Flagler County, Fla., a member of the school board filed a criminal report over the presence of All Boys Arent Blue in her districts school libraries, claiming it violated state obscenity laws.

With the rush to ban critical race theory, conservatives already gave up posturing as defenders of free speech. Still, this sudden mania for book banning is striking. Its part of a broader attack on public schools, one that draws on anger over critical race theory, mask mandates and sometimes even QAnon-inflected fears about pedophile conspiracies.

What Ive started to call more and more frequently the war on books, its getting wrapped up in all kinds of anti-school activities, said Richard Price, an associate professor of political science at Weber State University who runs the blog Adventures in Censorship.

Its important to acknowledge that some amount of parental shock at envelope-pushing young adult literature is understandable. As in the days when the Christian right tried to rid libraries of Judy Blume, books whose frankness about taboo subjects intrigue teenagers can horrify their elders.

One frequently targeted book is the 2019 graphic memoir Gender Queer. Its author, Maia Kobabe, wrote an illustrated column about the uproar over the book in The Washington Post, with a thought bubble saying, Why are they mad about the book? Because I said nonbinary and trans people exist? Perhaps, but Id guess that some parents are also mad about the images of fellatio. Its easy to imagine Gender Queer being a great comfort to a confused and lonely 16-year-old, but its just as easy to see why conservatives would find it outrageous.

The transgressive nature of some recent young adult literature, however, isnt enough to explain the current nationwide campaign to cleanse libraries of works seen as unwholesome. For one thing, at most schools, parents can already block their own kids access to books they object to. And many of the works the right is now up in arms about have been out for years. The Texas lawmaker Matt Krause recently sent school districts a list of around 850 books that he wants information on. Among the titles to be investigated are William Styrons The Confessions of Nat Turner and Jeffrey Eugenidess Middlesex.

Ashley Hope Prezs award-winning Out of Darkness, about a romance between a Mexican American girl and a Black boy set against Texas 1937 New London school explosion, came out in 2015. Until this year Prez, a former high school English teacher who is now an assistant professor at Ohio State University, hadnt heard of any controversy around it. But now her book is regularly denounced by school culture warriors. The group No Left Turn in Education, which was founded last year to fight critical race theory in schools, has it on a list of books that are indoctrinating kids to a dangerous ideology.

In September, a Texas anti-mask activist named Kara Bell read a passage from Out of Darkness at a school board meeting. The scene she chose was one in which a gang of racist white students sexually demean the Mexican heroine.

Bell quoted the characters making a slang reference to anal sex, words that left her appalled. I do not want my children to learn about anal sex in middle school! she cried. Ive never had anal sex! I dont want to have anal sex! I dont want my kids having anal sex!

Video of Bell went viral, and Prez was deluged with furious and sometimes violent messages, often accusing her of promoting pedophilia. Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America, told me he was accused of being a pedophile simply for defending the presence of Out of Darkness in school libraries. Theres definitely some kind of QAnon element taking place here, he said. After all, the paranoid belief that liberalism is a front for pedophile cabals is a staple of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

This spreading moral panic demonstrates, yet again, why the left needs the First Amendment, even if the veneration of free speech has fallen out fashion among some progressives. Absent a societal commitment to free expression, the question of who can speak becomes purely a question of power, and in much of this country, power belongs to the right.

What were seeing is really this idea that marginalized communities, marginalized groups, dont have a place in public school libraries, or public libraries, and that libraries should be institutions that only serve the needs of a certain group of people in the community, said Caldwell-Stone. The fight about who controls school libraries is a microcosm of the fight about who controls America, and the right is on the offense.

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Opinion | Conservatives Are Trying to Ban a Growing List of Books - The New York Times