After Wiley, I didn’t have a fight on my hands for once. Why did that feel so weird? | Hadley Freeman | The Guardian

Suddenly I had all this time that I’d expected to fill with arguing the antisemitism any fool could see was, yes, antisemiticI’ll say this for Wiley: at least he showed where the red line was. Because honestly, over the past five years, it hasn’t always been so clear to us Jews. But now we know: it takes a middle-aged grime artist tweeting that Jews should be shot for there to be general agreement that this seems pretty antisemitic. So thanks, Wiley!I was away the weekend Wiley posted what the NME described as “Israel tweets”. But when I later caught up, I experienced a strange sensation: people seemed to be… taking this seriously. The NME aside, no one was insisting this was just about Israel. OK sure, a journalist in The Voice casually referred to “the hypothesis that you need to get a Jewish lawyer in order to progress in the music business… I’ve never seen anyone Jewish refute or confirm this” . But in the main, everyone agreed this was Not Good, and to show their displeasure they refrained from tweeting for 48 hours (if only someone had thought of that in 1939). It was bizarre: suddenly I had all this time on my hands I’d expected to fill with arguing that the antisemitism any fool could see was, yes, antisemitic. Perhaps I should take up knitting? Continue reading…

Suddenly I had all this time that I’d expected to fill with arguing the antisemitism any fool could see was, yes, antisemitic

I’ll say this for Wiley: at least he showed where the red line was. Because honestly, over the past five years, it hasn’t always been so clear to us Jews. But now we know: it takes a middle-aged grime artist tweeting that Jews should be shot for there to be general agreement that this seems pretty antisemitic. So thanks, Wiley!

I was away the weekend Wiley posted what the NME described as “Israel tweets”. But when I later caught up, I experienced a strange sensation: people seemed to be… taking this seriously. The NME aside, no one was insisting this was just about Israel. OK sure, a journalist in The Voice casually referred to “the hypothesis that you need to get a Jewish lawyer in order to progress in the music business… I’ve never seen anyone Jewish refute or confirm this” . But in the main, everyone agreed this was Not Good, and to show their displeasure they refrained from tweeting for 48 hours (if only someone had thought of that in 1939). It was bizarre: suddenly I had all this time on my hands I’d expected to fill with arguing that the antisemitism any fool could see was, yes, antisemitic. Perhaps I should take up knitting?

Continue reading…