"Everything and everyone upholds white supremacy, given the breadth of the term's definition necessary for us to wield is at a political cudgel as we see fit."
New York, July 5 - Progressive activists following the lead of a Boston-area group that mapped and labeled Jewish institutions as contributing to racism have hit a snag in expanding the idea nationally to fit their broader purposes, as the roster of establishments that qualify as targets of their activism represents nearly the entire corpus of commercial enterprises; churches; synagogues; temples; schools; federal, state, and county agencies; volunteer organizations; and other ad hoc or formal associations, lending the project no practical value.
Boston BDS issued a map in June that gave the names and addresses of dozens of Jewish schools, synagogues, and NGOs that the group said contribute to white supremacy and other ills through tacit or active support for Zionism, a movement that, in the group's view, is synonymous with white supremacy and colonialism. The move generated flak even from the umbrella BDS movement for putting a target on the backs of Jews and their institutions as that far-left segment of the activist cohort has struggled to shake its image as condoning, if not directly supporting, antisemitism. Prominent progressives, however, have taken inspiration from the mapping idea, noting that while its execution suffered from important optic flaws, the underlying idea remains sound and can serve as the basis for a broader effort to catalog and target institutions and entities that hold back racial and social progress. Once the mapping effort got underway, activist realized they were simply producing a list of all the entities in the country, not narrowing or focusing their endeavor in any constructive way.
"So it turns out everything and everyone upholds white supremacy, given the breadth of the term's definition necessary for us to wield is at a political cudgel as we see fit," acknowledged Linda Sarsour, formerly a leader of the Women's March who had to step down amid antisemitism allegations. "We all know white supremacy is rampant in law enforcement, but then, all institutions that cater to law enforcement, such as donut shops, uniform suppliers, and office or tech supply companies, contribute as well. Investment houses and banks profit from predatory racist lending practices, even if only by proxy; transportation companies burn fossil fuels that destroy the environment where People of Color live. The list goes on and on. Community institutions such as churches promote the notion of 'morality,' which by implication deems the behavior of so many disadvantaged youths of color 'immoral.' In the end, we're no better off, organizationally and strategically, than when we started."
"OK, that's not entirely the case," Sarsour admitted. "Some of us made bank with the grants we got to do this in the first place."