This will be my last comment on this whole Macklemore saga (or maybe not, who knows). In his self-aggrandising statement after he got dumped, he talked about weaponising accusations of antisemitism. I want to talk about that. First, I don’t think that anyone who dressed up like this and claimed he didn’t know it was a Jewish stereotype gets to talk about what is and isn’t antisemitism. As I’ve said before, antisemitism is not necessarily or merely a hatred of Jewish people, or of all Jewish people. It’s a worldview built on libels about destructive Jewish power. So this gets me to the second and more fundamental point. My presumption whenever I see someone talking about weaponising accusations of antisemitism is that they are, indeed, antisemites (or Jewhaters if you prefer). Why? It’s axiomatic for those who proclaim themselves as anti-racists or progressives that minorities get to define what is bigotry targeting themselves. And that those minorities’ lived experience must be listened to and not spoken over. Not only are Jews denied these norms, but they are told that their accusations of bigotry are made in bad faith as a way for them to exploit their power and subjugate others. That’s two lots of double standards right there. As the brilliant Henry Ergas wrote in The Australian earlier this month in response to Richard Flanagan who used the same tired lazy formulation: “The goal is simple: to avoid addressing the substance of the charge by impugning the accuser's supposed motives. Critics are presumed to be acting in bad faith, fabricating persecution to advance their political ends. Hatred is thus rebaptised as legitimate criticism, while those who object become accomplices in a secret campaign to stifle debate. Every attempt to expose antisemitism is therefore just further proof of Jewish deceit, allowing the Jews to be accused of inventing the antisemitism that now mars our national life.”