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There Is Something Familiar About Palestine To This Black Man.

Garrick McFadden
Cultured
Published in
9 min readNov 26, 2023

By Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138775595

There is no complexity or nuance in the annihilation of an ethnic/religious/racial minority.

Yet, when I listen or read about the turmoil or whatever nom du jour euphemism that has been unfurled to bully us not to speak truth to power concerning Palestinian civilians being slaughtered by the Israel Defense Forces (“IDF”), all I am told is that this is a complex and nuanced situation. The constant bombardment of admonishments from pundits rivals the ordinance freely falling on Gaza by the IDF. With their sparkling titles, degrees, and experience, with condescension dripping off every syllable, they berate us by implying we lack the cognitive capacity to appreciate the problems in Israel. With pity in their words, they inform us that we are not smart enough to understand the complexity (or any of its dizzying assortment of synonyms used by politicians, journalists, non-profits, and other pundits) to gaslight us into remaining silent on Gaza.

I refuse to be gaslit.

I reject that condemnation of Israel for refusing to use restraint as it seeks to wipe the plague of Hamas off this planet is anti-Semitic.

I reject that there is any complexity or nuance in the untempered bombing of locations where civilians reside.

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Published in Cultured

We Redefine Culture. Stories Curated by Activists. Read Cultured for the latest on Culture, Race, Equality, Womanism, Gender, & Mental Health. We Don’t Hold Back▲

Written by Garrick McFadden

I am a civil-rights attorney. I write about #whiteness, #racism, #hiphop, policing & politics. https://gamesqlaw.com/index.php/thoughts/

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