HATE CRIMES Sowing Love

February 14 2007

Sowing Love

Applying for jobs and wondering what a curious perspective employer might find, I googled myself the other day. Turns out I’m on an internet hate list. It is called the “SH*T list of 7,000 self-hating Israel-bashing Jews”. It seems that what the 7,000 on the list have in common is a commitment to join thousands of Israelis in speaking out, as Jews, against Israeli foreign policy.

OK, I know it just the work of one lone kook; and I know it is quite an honor to be associated with the likes of Naomi Kline, Rachel Corrie, Adrian Rich, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky Rabbi Lerner, and Amy Goodman. Still, I felt a pain in my chest seeing my name next to the words “kike bitch.” I imagined how it might effect someone considering me as a future colleague. Being told you’re a self-hater, somehow bites.

I thought about other times in my life when I encountered hate groups.


Early 1980s Mora Minnesota: Members of a local church mobilized to attack gays and lesbians. People from all over Minnesota came to Mora to counteract the organized bigots. My mind is foggy on the particulars. What I remember is standing there with so many strangers in good company, united in our desire to counteract hate.

1989 Northern Wisconsin: Native Americans asserted their spear fishing rights and encountered an angry mob. WAMM, among other groups, organized people to go stand in solidarity.. Signs saying “Spear an Indian, save a Walleye” left a shocking impression. But again those who came to support treaty rights vastly outnumbered the local hate group.

2001 Minneapolis Minnesota: In the aftermath of 9/11, in response to attacks on Arab Americans, students, staff, and faculty gathered at the University of Minnesota to express solidarity with their Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters. It was an unusually diverse crowd. People representing different ethnic racial and religious groups gathered together to speak out against these hate crimes.

2005 Owatonna Minnesota, a march in support of immigrant rights. The circle we formed around the local square was penetrated by a group of European Americans in their 50s and 60s armed with signs saying ‘go back to where you came from.” The ugly looks on their faces strengthened the resolve of those gathered not to rest until every one understands that “no human being is illegal”.

2006 St Paul. The Minutemen, a hate group that hangs out on the U.S. Mexican border and dedicates themselves to harassing immigrants, came to the Minnesota Capital hoping to whip up some support. Instead they were met by three hundred immigrant’s rights advocates. As people gathered to speak and chant and sing, the Minutemen got on their motorcycles and drove away.

More insidious than individual or private hate groups however, are the hate policies of Government. I’m not talking just about historical legally sanctioned hate: slavery, Jim Crow, Indian Removal, Chinese Exclusion, Mexican Repatriation. No, I’m thinking now of the arrests of hundreds of Latino meat packers by U.S. immigration (ICE) in Worthington Minnesota last month, the ongoing torture of Guantanamo prisoners, using techniques aimed at defaming the Muslim religion; our Minnesota Governor’s promise last fall to make sure the children of undocumented immigrant children in will not be allowed in-state tuition; the refusal of our government to fund reconstruction and social construction in impoverished black neighborhoods in New Orleans and Minneapolis, instead pouring more of our young people and money into the destruction of Iraq.

Taking action against hate committed by private groups or by the government, creates some powerful coalitions. The arrests in Worthington have brought together Labor and Latino activists, Christian and Jewish groups, and hundreds of others appalled at the crime of family separation and impoverishment, due to government action. They have been protesting at Coleman’s office and conducting community hearings, organizing relief funds, food and toy drives for affected families. These are actions of self-love, and love-of-humanity- you can tell because they feel good.


Happy Valentines Day