GAPP began when hate literature was being dropped all over our area in 1999. We were confused that it was both racist and anti-Semitic. We didn’t understand the connection between racism and anti-Semitism; between white supremacy and white nationalism. In June of this year, the newly formed Cincinnati Regional Coalition Against Hate invited community organizer Eric Ward to describe his analysis of the intersection of white supremacy and white nationalism. As an African American man, he told the audience at the Freedom Center that he had come to understand that if he wanted to free his people, he had to contend with anti-Semitism, “because anti-Semitism forms the theoretical core of white nationalism.” Anti-Semitism fuels white nationalism, and fighting anti-Semitism cuts off that fuel for the sake of all marginalized communities under siege. By understanding the history of the transition from white supremacy as the law of the land from slavery through the Jim Crow era, to the white nationalism that emerged after the Civil Rights movement, we won’t be shaking our heads and asking each other “How is this happening?” We will be better able to respond in more effective ways to the reality before us, which has been hidden in plain sight. His talk was recorded and is available, along with his lengthy essay “Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism.” Please take some time follow these links and grapple with this challenging information.

Eric Ward’s essay “Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism” can be found here:
https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/06/29/skin-in-the-game-how-antisemitism-animates-white-nationalism/

His June, 2018 presentation at the Freedom Center can be watched here:
https://www.facebook.com/cincinnaticoalition/videos/2049703411907836/