Episode 433: Arnie Arnesen Attitude March 28 2024

Attitude with Arnie Arnesen

Part 1:
We talk with Mark Joseph Stern, reporter for Slate.com about the case at the US Supreme Court about the FDA's approval of mifepristone. The standing of the plaintiffs is also in question. This is part of the Heritage Foundation's push of Project 2025. Court has not yet ruled, and the result will affect the FDA's power to declare the safety/non-safety of drugs and medical devices in the US.

Part 2

#RaceClass Ep. 27 | Rightwing Jewish Organizations Fuel the New Anti-Semitism

One increasingly encounters the descriptive claim that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the causal claim that progressive politics are to blame. For anyone familiar with Christopher Rufo’s unapologetic smear campaigns against CRT and DEI, there is a reflex to dismiss both claims as manufactured propaganda. That reflex makes sense, but invites two risks: one analytical, one political. The analytical risk entails discounting or disregarding actual evidence of anti-Semitism. The political risk entails alienating allies who hold legitimate concerns about anti-Semitism past and present. To guard against these risks, we take seriously both claims. We then discuss our provisional conclusions. First, it is likely that students whose dress signals Jewish identity (e.g., wearing a Kippah or Star of David) are increasingly likely to encounter hostility or negative attitudes from others. Second, rightwing Jewish organizations are responsible, in large part, for this hostility. Here’s why: Through their rhetoric and behavior, including the rigid claim that anti-Zionism is per se anti-Semitism, these organizations have hardened the conceptual link between Jewish identity and Israel’s current assault on Palestinian life. As a result, symbols of Jewishness are now publicly read as symbols of anti-Palestinian animus. To better understand how rightwing rhetoric fuels this new anti-Semitism (which renders vulnerable Jewish students who are orthodox and anti-Zionist), we turn to Khaled Beydoun’s scholarship on islamophobia.

Jonathan Feingold

Associate Professor of Law
Boston University School of Law
[e-mail] | #RaceClass Podcast | research

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