Over the weekend, a synagogue in Carmel, Indiana was attacked by white supremacist vandals, who covered an out-building in racist graffiti and Nazi symbols — a rough representation of a Nazi flag surrounded by two Iron Crosses.
If that seems out of the ordinary to you, it’s probably because public displays like this have really only come back into fashion among hate groups over the course of the last two years.
To be clear, racism has never gone missing or silent in America, or even dormant. There has always been at the very least an undercurrent of a wide variety of flavors of racism, part of an institutionalized system of oppression that’s infiltrated the courts, the schools, law enforcement, and of course hiring practices and customer service or other aspects of society that we may come in contact with far more often than a judge or a cop.
But specifically, hate crimes have increased over the last two years. Now, I could be a really nice guy and just draw the line for you to what happened around two years ago that made have made America seem like open season once again for the kind of people who would, for example, spray paint a swastika on the side of a synagogue. But I’ll bet you can figure it out.
Being an Indiana native, of course, the Vice President had something to say about the attack on the Jewish church:
Sickened and appalled by the cowardly act of vandalism at Congregation Shaarey Tefilla; a beautiful synagogue in Carmel, Indiana where I have many good friends. Those responsible must be held accountable. These vile acts of anti-Semitism must end. https://t.co/0h6rKPilda
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) July 29, 2018
There’s a lot going on here, possibly most notably that Pence finally spoke up about the oppression of some religion other than evangelical Christianity, a sect he is famous for belonging to. But that’s honestly not that extraordinary: Most evangelicals have a kinship with the Jewish faith — being similar in both style and substance to their own — that extends well beyond religion into politics.
But the swastika has become so much more than an antisemitic symbol. It now represents, much like a MAGA hat, a simmering hatred of all nonwhites.
A congregant of the synagogue Pence was so concerned about in his sympathy tweet pointed out to the Vice President that perhaps he could have done something to prevent this from happening:
I’m a member of that congregation. Perhaps you and your boss should have clearly denounced Charlottesville, white supremacists, Nazis, etc. before attacks like this happened, no? https://t.co/R3JIRcf4IW
— Yaron Ayalon (@yayalon) July 29, 2018
We have to say, Yaron Ayalon has a point: It’s not hard to call people out when they’re using Nazi imagery. Just look at Page Braswell, a southern gal whose outrage over a neighbor’s Nazi flag earned her a spot in viral video lore after she pulled into the driveway of one Joe Love to ask him what was up with the swastika flag in his window just days after the Charlottesville Nazi rally that killed peaceful protester Heather Heyer.
The Vice President could do with a lesson from Page:
I can’t be afraid to confront Nazis. Racists should not be comfortable in today’s society.”
Featured image via screen capture
