#JewishPrivilege: How Jews Flipped the Top Trending Hashtag

twitter
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Deborah Brand

#JewishPrivilege is trending on Twitter. In fact, on Sunday it was the top trending hashtag, but not for the right reasons. It was being used to promote the idea Jews are a privileged group who, as well as controlling the world, are responsible for all of its ills, including police brutality.

#JewishPrivilege was also being used to silence Jews speaking out against antisemitism.

Especially those who had the chutzpah to politely object to the antisemitic vitriol spewed by Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, in the wake of which the world remained deafeningly silent — perhaps because antisemitism doesn’t generate the same fury as other prejudices.

So Jewish Twitter users — and their supporters — flipped the script. Overnight, they had appropriated the hashtag for their own experiences of #JewishPrivilege. The idea was started by writer Hen Mazzig, who called on his 30,000 followers to tell their own stories and experiences of being a Jew.

“I received tons of requests from young Jews from all over the world telling me how heartbroken they are to read this hashtag that implies that by being Jewish you enjoy more privileges than the rest of society which is a complete antisemitic trope that is equal to saying that Jews are rich or that Jews are all powerful,” Mazzig told Breitbart.

“That’s why I thought I would share the story of my grandparents who came from Iraq and north Africa and who faced violence for being Jewish and I encouraged by 30,000 followers to do the same and they did. the following morning I woke up to see that the hashtag was trending again but this time for the right reasons,” Mazzig added.

“It was a small victory for our people,” he added.

Here’s a roundup of some of Jewish Twitterati’s hashtag takeover.

I’ll begin with my own.

 

Not all the #JewishPrivilege stories were negative. Many people expressed pride at being Jewish. Head of American Jewish Committee David Harris wrote that his #JewishPrivilege was to be “part of an ancient people” who gave the world “monotheism, life’s sacredness, equality, pursuit of justice, quest for peace” among other things.

To be sure, the Twittersphere is still running strong with the original, antisemitic #JewishPrivilege tweets. Mazzig noted one tweet, a screenshot from anonymous imageboard site 4chan, in which he was called a “checkmark k*ke” for “flooding the hashtag with victim narrative bullshit.” The tweet called on people to re-appropriate the hashtag, writing “BLM is right about Jewish Privilege,” and urged people to use quotes about Jews from black leaders including notorious antisemite and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Users were also told, “Don’t forget to add #FreePalestine to add the seething.”

Mazzig initiated what he called the “social media flip” in part to highlight the inaction by social media giants, especially Twitter, in curbing online antisemitism.

“They’re doing it for other minorities but for the Jewish community it’s like, we don’t matter enough,” he said.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.