BOW DOWN TO WHO?

If Republican Senatorial candidate John James is looking to expand his withering base, it might have backfired during a recent TV appearance where he made an anti-Semitic statement. On the Sunday, June 28th show “Flashpoint” with Devin Scillian on WDIV Local 4 News, in speaking about how the political parties could, or should, reach out to African Americans, James, who is Black, said, “The Republican Party doesn’t even try, and the Democrats neglect us. We need to make sure that we force both parties to treat us the way they’re genuflecting for working class white males and for our Jewish friends. They need to work like that for us.” Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus chair Noah Arbit condemned the statement as an anti-Semitic remark, noting “At a time in which Americans are confronting the legacy of generations of racism and experiencing unprecedented levels of anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence, it is reprehensible and deeply offensive that James would think to describe the Democratic Party as ‘genuflecting...to our Jewish friends’” – meaning to bow down and worship. Arbit continued that this kind of dialogue of pitting Blacks and Jews against each other is “hateful and dangerous.”