Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years - the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia's Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric. Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era.

"Lies are an important part of all discrimination, and this one is no different. When well crafted, they create the illusion that the action is just, that the bigot is 'punching up' at the victim. It's critical to antisemites, who must explain why they are attacking a people that comprise less than half of one percent of the world's population. Not a fair fight, numbers wise. But if the Jews are ultra-powerful because of secret evil plots, well, the argument is, it must be fair and ok.

"The silence from leaders and corporations^[1] when it comes to Kanye or antisemitism in general is dismaying but not surprising. What is new and sad, is the fear Jews have about speaking out in their own defense.

"Why is a group that has historically been brave and unreserved in its fight against antisemitism so quiet on Kanye?

"Because of the emergence of a second lie - one that is at the center of what we call Antisemitism 2.0. It is brilliantly crafted, fast becoming part of mainstream thinking, and puts Jews is a terrible philosophical corner. That lie goes as follows:

"If you support Israel's right to exist, you are a racist.
 If you are a Jew, you support Israel's right to exist.
 Therefore, if you are Jewish, you are a racist.

"As leaders of this company (a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian), we feel duty bound to say to all of you this is a pernicious, terrible use of false logic. It marries very well with the first 'punching up' lie that all Jews are connected by conspiracy. And it is working, because many Jews are scared to speak up in defense of their religion, or Israel, for fear of being labelled racists. It is no more true than saying that if you support Palestine's right to exist, you must be an antisemite.

-- from "Shelving of Our Kanye West Documentary and Two Important Lies", by Asif Satchu (CEO & Co-Founder), Modi Wiczyk (CEO & Co-Founder), Scott Tenley (CBO) of MRC Entertainment, on why their documentary about Kanye West will not be distributed

[There's more; it's not long. Also, if there's any question of whether Mr. West's words were dangerous: he has twice as many followers on Twitter as there are Jews in the whole world. (Surveys have shown that most non-Jews greatly overestimate the Jewish population, globally and locally.)]

^[1]In the last couple days, a bunch of corporations have severed ties with Mr. West. I think most of them did so after this letter was published, but have not gone through the timeline in detail.