Allen Johnson has posted yesterday's polemic by Carolyn Allen (also signed by Z Holler and Gregory Headen) in reaction to John Young's article on the CWP. I still think Doug Clark got it right.

Young has not "demonized the survivors of the events of Nov. 3, 1979."

How is he "undercutting the process" or "undermining the work"?

Answer: he's not. He's contributing to it.

And the Holocaust analogy is just offensive. Well, not just offensive, also inaccurate.

Comments

[Chewie]

I noticed on page 7 of this week's Yes Weekly that Leonard Pitts seemed to make a similar comparison in his March 19 talk at UNCG. I didn't see Pitts' talk, but here's the quote:

"I hear that people are saying, 'That was 1979. Get over it. Just move on.' I would never dare - most of us would never dare - say to a Jew, 'Move on from the Holocaust.' The difference is that when you talk about the holocaust you're indicting another people. When you talk about the African-American experience you're talking about someone's mother and father... When someone acknowledges your pain, it validates you. When someone accepts your apology, it frees you."

Possibly a source of inspiration for the usage in the letter?

[Ed Cone]

Seems pretty different to me. He was comparing the experience of slavery and Jim Crow to the Holocaust, while the letter was holding up the specific experiences of a political group to millions of victims in some sort of moral equivalence.

Also, as I whispered to my wife when I heard Pitts say that, I think it's time the Jews moved on from the Holocaust.