This week a coffee shop owner's annti-semitic rants went viral. Yeah, anti-semitic, in the twenty-first century, in America. Basically this man blames "greedy Jews," who function "via greed and dominance," for trying to buy out Bushwick, New York. His rants go on, and I won't post them here so as to not spread his seeds elsewhere, but my main question is; while we should definitelly take offense, and in no way condone such behavior, is it the right thing to do to blow it up? While this is crazy, I hardly think that it's worth front page news, and merely gives him the fifteen minutes of fame he's looking for. It might even be better to ignore it all together. The chance of changing his belief is slim to none. People, especially those willing to put up long facebook essays about his disdain for a group of people is going to need a life altering event in order to change his mind, but blowing him up serves to merely spread what he is saying to where people who can identify with his issue might be subversed into understanding his stance, and possibly believing his beliefs. I think that, especially on a national level, and even a state level, this kind of news should not even be reported on. Should it condoned? No. Should it be stopped? Heck yeah, but I think the way society has been going about it, villifying and shaming for all to see doesn't get the job done. If people have a problem, boycott the store, drive him out of business. Force him to make a formal apology. I would love to read an article about how people came together to fight anti-semitism as opposed to opps there's another racist with a big mouth who figured out how to work Facebook. What do you guys think? How should society deal with people like this Bushwick coffee vendor?
4 comments:
Although I am a stern believer in non violent protesting peace process, I am also a firm believer in the first amendment. Let him say whatever he wants, he has that right. However, he has to know that there are consequences to his actions. While national attention isn’t needed, state and local attention is. His community must band together as a group and show him that his beliefs are not accepted. There is no need to personally attack the man violently, just boycott his products, his store, his everything. He will then hold his future in his own hands, and he will have to make the decision to either stop following his Antisemitist beliefs, or be run out of business
This whole issue is totally blown out of proportion. It's all centered around just one guy, who owns some random New York coffee shop. It's a sad truth, but Anti-Semitism and all sorts of other forms of hate still exist today, like with the KKK and Neo-Nazis. No matter what one does, there's always going to be some person or some small group of people that holds some radical belief like they do. I totally agree with you in that this stuff really shouldn't be reported on. The only reason this blew up would be because this guy was just more vocal and someone who was sort of sensitive reacted to it. Most hate is so small and diffused, one can simply just block it out and ignore it. Nothing bad can really come from that. I'm not condoning people saying bad stuff like this, but like it's easier just to "block out the haters." If people really feel strongly about something or if the offense is particularly grievous, then maybe they can do some sort of peaceful protesting like boycotting or whatever.
I believe that this kind of attention is needed. It serves as a reminder that these kinds of feelings are not a thing of the past and ensures that the public does not ever repeat the mistakes that this kind of thinking have brought. While it may galvanize some like minded people, it will, more likely than not, force people to think about and prevent it.
I agree with Christian that specific instances like this should not necessarily be viewed by the public as somehow more outrageous than the countless daily exhibitions of the ignorance across the country, especially online. The coffee shop worker's incoherent Instagram rant mirrors the ignorant comments that can be found on almost any thread, so I don't think this man deserves the satisfaction of gaining fifteen minutes of quasi-fame for his post. Although Antony brings up a good point about the importance of remembering that discrimination against many societal groups is still prevalent, I don't think instances like this one necessarily deserve to garner media attention beyond the community of the coffee shop. The article mentioned that people close to the man and other members of the community have denounced his actions and don't plan on returning to the shop, so it's clear that there is opposition to his ignorance. I think a better and more useful topic of media coverage would be the instances where blatant discrimination is exhibited and no one steps in to oppose it. That could actually spark some productive input from the public instead of simply giving this one dense man some undeserved fame.
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