Immigrant Law School Graduate Thankful for America

Two things I’d note here.
First is that I’m suspicious of all religious extremes. I’m particularly against the strain of Islam that oppresses women, but am quick to note the Islamic people I’ve met, including in Jordan, were kind and hospitable people.

Second, free speech is a crucial right in a democracy. It is clear that some speech while allowed, we might feel it ought not be. The problem is there is no standard judges can employ to conclude that the First Amendment ought to be modified to prohibit some speech. (In fact there are some exceptions, such as the famos yelling fire in a crowded theater.

I’ve no doubt, if they could, each side would prohibit some speech. They’d radically differ in what speech they’d prohibit, though.

 

Perhaps that's true, but you attributed the comment to me, which makes no sense given what I posted.

 

As lawyers have pointed out in the past, the First Amendment's teeth is really a restraint on government, not the culture.

I remember an America growing up where people also sought to honor this "spirit of the First Amendment" by "strongly disagreeing with what you have to say, but fighting like Hell for your right to say it." This "fighting like Hell for your right to say it" typically included a cultural restraint element. It suggested people typically shouldn't be ostracized for their opinions.

That attitude has gone by the wayside these days and such cultural privileges especially shouldn't be afforded towards people who want to crap all over them.

All of that said, as a country, we need to move back to that attitude honoring "the spirit of the First Amendment."

 

I think you miss my point: speech can be hateful (to varying degrees, thus, remotely) no matter who it’s directed at.

 

I wasn’t saying giving the mic to a Yemeni national is comparable to a neo-Nazi per-se.

I was speaking more to the reactions. Plenty on the right were citing “Free Speech” when they actually were hosting neo-Nazi groups. Not “like Neo-Nazi’s” - but actual neo-Nazi’s who are re-branded themselves as alt-right. So how can anyone who defended all that craziness now be lambasting this school for “allowing” this speech? Makes no sense.

While the school and students might have been aware of this woman’s background, it’s not like being a Yemini national automatically makes her anti-Semitic, and her social justice activism would tend to lead one far away from anti-semitism. She may simply have some conflicted views between her legal/academic ideals and her cultural passions (seeing Israel as the oppressor). Kind of like that congresswoman Omar who occasionally slips up. But you know what? I’ve heard Omar apologize when she slips up, I don’t know much about her but I can respect that.

 

"Zionist" is a euphemism for "Jew." If you drop the word "zionist" on a white nationalist website, there would be no confusion who you mean: All Jews whether they openly support Israel or not. It's not much different than using "Jihadist" and then saying, oh I only meant the Muslims who wage Jihad.

 

I'm not attacking the school and frankly I don't know who is.

Omar has said absolutely terrible things repeatedly, has made it clear that those are her views by repeating the same tropes and messaging, and refuses to condemn anti-semitism unless it's lumped in with something else.

She's not a good person. She's just the type that does a half-baked apology when threatened with some kind of cost.

I'm not going to judge people who vote for her because it's a binary choice at the ballot box, but I really question the motives of anyone who tries propping her up as this leader in the Democratic Party. It's not like I hear she has this unique tax policy that people like, or she has a way of getting things done by bringing the party together. The identity politics stuff is central to her appeal when it should be the biggest red flag.

 

That is actually and ironically incorrect.

Social justice under the modern standard leads one away from anti-semitism until Jewish people (as a marginalized group) are juxtaposed with a militant Muslim or Palestinian group.

Under the standards of social justice, you need to be "empathetic" towards the most marginalized group, which really means you can't act like you know the experience of being Palestinian or Muslim unless you are one, which really means the Palestinian or Muslim is right because they're Palestinian or Muslim. They're the "oppressed" and the "Zionists" are the "oppressors." And all of a sudden, you find yourself agreeing that Israel doesn't have a right to exist, and you're at least on the road to anti-semitism, many would say you're already there. While some Jews would characterize anti-Israeli sentiment as anti-semitism, I don't know if I'd go that far, but it requires so much mental gymnastics to justify that position that you're on your way to anti-semitism. Today, it's "Israel is bad because the Palestinians were there first (which is debatable)" tomorrow it's "Israel is bad because the Jews are bad."

 

Zionist is not necessarily a euphemism for Jew. I am a Jew, and I don't consider myself a Zionist (with regard to how the term is used today). I know of other American Jews who feel the same way. Might some white supremacists use the term that way? Maybe. But the fact is that Ms. Muhammed's Jewish classmates issued a statement supporting her, so I'll trust their instincts about her instead of assuming the worst.

 

I asked that back on page one where I posted the actual speech. Still waiting. Here is the transcript front YouTube


Introduction
hello everyone
thank you Dean study for that
introduction I want to start by greeting
you all with the greeting I know best
may peace and blessings be upon you all
my name is
and I come to you all from the rich soil
of Yemen raised by The Humble streets of
Queens
[Applause]
it is my honor and I'm humbled to be
standing before you all as a selected
class speaker daytime speaker of the
class of 2023.
[Applause]
to all our loved ones our parents
grandparents siblings partners and
Friends our comrades aunts and uncles
and all the little kids in the crowd
those who made it and those who couldn't
we wouldn't be here without you
thank you for your unwavering love
my mom's crying so that means answering
thank you for your unwavering love and
support
the celebration is yours
this is a moment for those who paved the
way for us to be here those who wipe
down our tears
those who are waiting ahead and to those
we now must open the doors
and now to the graduating class of 2023
before I begin
I want to tell you all that my
grandparents are in Yemen right now and
they assured me that there are fireworks
lighting up the city of Adam in
celebration of all of us so just know
that oceans away there's a whole city on
the other end of the Earth it feels like
celebrating you all
[Applause]
to the class of 2023
the moment we have all been waiting for
is finally here
the class that began this journey during
a season of grief a season where
ambulance trucks were the only noise in
town and our neighborhoods became sort
of ghost towns
where we watched our immigrant parents
keep the city on its feet as they saw
bodies packed into refrigerated morgue
trucks
the class that saw nothing but black
Zoom square boxes for the first two
years there's a lot I can say about the
loss and the pain we've all endured over
the last three years but I am reminded
of France fannin's words
things get bad for all of us almost
continually
and what we do Under the constant stress
reveals who and what we are
and so I'm here to celebrate who and
what we are who you are like many of you
I chose CUNY school of law for its
articulated mission to be law in the
service of human needs one of very few
legal institutions created
Calls out Law as being "White Supremacy"
to recognize that the law is a
manifestation of white supremacy that
continues to oppress and suppress people
in this nation and around the world we
joined this institution
we joined this institution to be
equipped with the necessary legal skills
to protect our communities to protect
the organizers fighting endlessly day in
and out with no accolades No cameras no
votes no PhD grants working to lift the
facade of legal neutrality and confront
the systems of Oppression that wreck
violence on them systems of Oppression
created to feed an Empire with a
ravenous Appetite for Destruction and
violence institutions created to
intimidate bully and censor and stifle
the voices of those who resist
In This Moment
[Applause]
in this moment of celebrating who we are
I want to celebrate CUNY law as one of
the few if not the only law school to
make a public statement defending the
right of its students to organize and
speak out against Israeli settler
colonialism
Calls out Israel
[Applause]
that this
hmm
that this is the law school that passed
and endorsed beds on a student and
faculty level
[Music]
recognizing that absent a critical
imperialism settler colonialism lens our
work and this school's mission statement
is void of value that as Israel
continues to indiscriminately Reign
bullets and bombs on worshipers
murdering the old the young attacking
even funerals and graveyards as it
encourages lynch mobs to Target
Palestinian homes and businesses as it
imprisons its children as it continues
its project of settler colonialism
expelling Palestinians from their homes
carrying the ongoing nakba that are
silent is no that are silence is no
longer acceptable
[Applause]
we are
[Applause]
we are the student body and faculty
that fought back when investor focused
admin attempted to cross the BDS picket
line saying loud and clear that
Palestine can no longer be the exception
to our pursuit of justice that our
morality will not be purchased by
investors
we are the class
we are the class that fought for
incarcerated clients and zealously filed
for their clemency applications with
nearly zero institutional support
we are the class that fought for cut for
clients to get Asylum that went to court
to reunite families torn apart by ACS in
the family surveillance
we are the class that organized against
using Lexus a legal research company
contracted with ice
and we did all of this in spite of the
racism in spite of the selective
activism the self-serving interests of
CUNY Central an institution that
continues to fill us that continues to
train and cooperate with the fascist
NYPD the military that continues to
train IDF soldiers to carry out that
same violence globally a larger
institution committed to its donors not
to its students
I am here
to remind us all that our existence on
its own today in this room is
revolutionary that as we embark on our
legal careers we must practice a
discipline of Truth and courage and hold
ourselves true to the mission statement
we came to the school for so today I
celebrate the courage and bravery that
got us here and I celebrate every moment
of resilience that sets us apart as the
number one leading public interest
School in this nation
thank you
I see
I see before my eyes brilliant future
public defenders I see brilliant
immigration attorneys housing attorneys
business attorneys civil rights
attorneys and movement lawyers I see
professors and Librarians ICB for me
future practitioners who will work on
contracts to end Partnerships with ice
and not intellectual property contracts
to secure designs for the newest drone
technology murdering children I see
future lawyers who will defend tenants
in court and not those that dispossess
dispossess our communities from their
homes I see future attorneys who will
protect the communities terrorized by
the surveillance State and not protect
the Agents of Oppression that carry out
that Terror future lawyers who will
fight to keep families together and not
tear them apart I see future lawyers
who will work to make this world a
better place one person one movement at
a time I see a class to be rejoiced a
class to be celebrated a class to be
remembered today and in the years ahead
and as we celebrate who we are today let
us actively fight against the collective
Amnesia and cognitive dissonance that
limits our understanding of the world to
what is only directly before our eyes
[Applause]
let us remember
let us remember that just this week has
been bombed with a world watching
that daily brown and black men are being
murdered by the state at Rikers
that there are Palestinian political
prisoners like HLF in U.S prisons that
there are refugees at the southern
border still locked up that yesterday
March one year since the murder of U.S
journalists
and that the murder of black men like
Jordan Neely by a white man on a on the
MTA is dignified by politicians like
Eric Adams and Senator Chuck tumor
we leave our classes and we leave the
school to a world that so desperately
needs us to stand alongside those who
have given up for the sake of Liberation
far more than we could imagine so may
the joy and excitement that fills the
auditorium here May the rage that fills
this Auditorium dance in the hallways of
our elementary schools in our home
Villages
and Haiti Puerto Rico and the
Philippines may be rejoiced in the
corners of our New York City bedroom
apartments and dining tables
may it be the fuel for the fight against
capitalism racism imperialism and
Zionism around the world
and we'll save the world no single
movement will Liberate the masses those
who brunt the ferocity of the violence
those who carry
the revolution the people the masses
those who brought the ferocity of the
violence those who need our protection
they will carry this revolution the
revolution that lives so loudly despite
not being televised no longer are we
going to capitulate to oppressors no
longer are we going to put our hope in
their depraved Consciousness and as the
as the great Malcolm X said we declare
our right on this Earth to be a man to
be a human being to be respected as a
human being to be given the rights of a
human being in this Society on this
Earth in this day which we intend to
bring into existence by any means
necessary
[Applause]
so when client at a time on case at a
time when hearing at a time we will show
up for our communities we will show up
for ourselves and we will protect the
fight that brings us all closer to the
fall of all oppressive institution a
reality that is only myopic and
unrealistic to the oppressors but is the
inevitable future for the oppressed
for oppressed people everywhere for
greater empires of Destruction have
fallen before and so will these so to
the class of 2023 the fight begins now
Professors and Students Clapping

 

Appreciate that, but four paragraphs and a link please.

that said, there’s probably a reason no one would point out her racist comments, right?

 

Well. That’s a problem cuz you have to click on the YouTube link and enable transcript yourself, it’s not printed anywhere. Maybe in a bit I can upload a pdf to a host site and link.

 

If you got looped into a quote and it wasn’t something you posted I’m sorry.

 

You claimed earlier that she made racist comments in her speech. I asked what they were, and I don't believe you answered.
So what were they?

 

With respect I never said the racist comments were I her speech.
She’s made them in the past and sure sounds anti-semitic based on what another poster quoted.

Claiming that Zionist isn’t the same as being Jewish is a weak attempt to defend her.

 

Calling out continued Zionist expansion efforts and oppression of Palestinians isn’t anti-Semitic.

The first include Jewish people, but it’s the act that is being condemned, not their ethnicity or religion.

Would be like calling someone anti-Anglo for calling out racial oppression committed by white people.

 

She literally said that Zionists should not be in the same areas of the school as Palestinian studies and said there should be no Zionist professors.
The strictest definition is Zionist is someone who wants a State of Israel. Anti-Zionist speech is often considered “coded speech” for anti Jew
“The UK Labour Party has been at the centre of a row over anti-Semitism, including its relationship to anti-Zionism. What do these terms actually mean?

• Anti-Semitism is "hostility and prejudice directed against Jewish people" (OED).
• Zionism refers to the movement to create a Jewish state in the Middle East, roughly corresponding to the historical land of Israel, and thus support for the modern state of Israel. Anti-Zionism opposes that.
• But some say "Zionist" can be used as a coded attack on Jews, while others say the Israeli government and its supporters are deliberately confusing anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism to avoid criticism.

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from Labour following a series of remarks about Israel, including the suggestion that Hitler supported Zionism before the Holocaust.

It follows the suspension of Bradford West MP Naz Shah after it emerged she had once suggested, among other things, that Israel should be moved to the United States. The new president of the National Union of Students, Malia Bouattia, has also been heavily criticised for remarks she made about Zionists.

Many in the Jewish community say the use of "Zionist" as a term of abuse reflects a rising tide of bigotry and racism directed at Jews”
What's the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism?

I don’t see much difference to when Trump said there are a lot of illegals that are drug dealers and rapists coming into the country and the left screamed that was racist towards “brown people.

 

No it isn't, if you support the Israeli state, you are a Zionist. There are anti-Zionist Jews. That other people misuse or appropriate words doesn't make it true of people who use them accurately. Idiots call Democrats who aren't socialists socialists, but that doesn't make it a synonym for democrats, even though some idiots use it that way.

Many people who support the Israeli state want it to be synonymous for obvious reasons, but Israel doesnt represent Judaism. Its a right-wing apartheid state, and lots of Jews want nothing to do with it.

 

Center for Constitutional Rights Condemns Chancellor’s and Board of Trustees’ Dangerous Attack on CUNY Law Student Over Graduation Speech

 

Yes. It is. And I said "euphemism" not "synonym." Many if not most pejorative terms have a non-pejorative usage. There is a difference between a jewish person identifying as a zionist or distancing themselves from it, as the case may be, and someone issuing a polemic against these zionists.

And I don't believe there is a global industry dedicated to exposing and combatting the hidden plans of the Democratic party.