[Peace-discuss] News-Gazette on Bend the Arc

[David Green]

The lack of a functioning anti-war/peace movement in CU, and the lack of a
functioning movement for Palestinian rights in CU, have created the moral
vacuum which can be filled by liberal Jews of this sort (Terry Maher). They
identify with the ADL and the SPLC; they don't talk about foreign policy;
they don't grapple with the relationship between Zionism and Islamophobia
in American political culture; they promote "Jewish values" without
seriously addressing Jewish institutional behavior vis a vis Israel, USFP,
etc. Alan Dershowitz can come and go from this community without comment,
or with approval from these people; as can Steven Salaita, with active or
passive disapproval.  It's disgusting.

By the way, there is for all practical purposes *zero *white nationalism in
our schools or community that goes beyond being classified as a "thought
crime." But there's plenty of Zionism, including among the people who host
this event. Beyond that, there's plenty of bourgeois self-righteousness and
ignorance.

*BEND THE ARC*

*Expert in hate groups gets call*

*Teacher to lead event on white nationalism*

By LYNDSAY JONES

ljones at news-gazette.com

CHAMPAIGN — High school English teacher Nora Flanagan is aware that being a
“Nazi expert” is a “weird thing to be an expert on.”

But that’s what will bring her to Champaign’s Sinai Temple Thursday
evening, where she’s slated to lead a workshop titled “ Confronting White
Nationalism in Schools.” It’s the second in a series of local Bend the Arc
events aimed at fostering “safety through solidarity, meaning an attack on
a targeted group is an attack on all of us,” said the organization’s Terry
Maher.

“As we were doing our research on the problem of white nationalism
nationally, we realized students as young as 11 were being targeted,” she
said. “We thought that before Champaign- Urbana becomes the next in line,
we ought to do something about white nationalism in the schools.”

They invited Flanagan to come down from Chicago to lead the workshop, aimed
at helping school staff, family members and community members identify and
respond to signs of white nationalism or white supremacist recruitment or
support in young adults.

Flanagan grew up in a part of Chicago that had “a lot of intense race
issues in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” when she observed hate-group
recruitment efforts early on.

She also grew up in “the Chicago punk scene,” where she observed and echoed
anti-racist politics in action, then carried those principles into her
teaching education at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

But it wasn’t until she began work with an organization “researching how
hate groups use music to recruit young people” that her work went to
another level.

 “I spent a lot of time in the ugliest parts of the internet,” she said.
“That was when I saw there were suggestions for kids on how to bring their
politics to school — there were literally articles like ‘Here are five ways
to be visible as white nationalist at your school.’” Eventually, she would
co-author a guide to preventing such recruitment — the same one being
presented Thursday — but at first, she was quiet about the knowledge she’d
been accumulating.

When things happened in her school, she observed administrators choose one
of two options: “They either under-reacted or over-reacted,” she said.
“They would either dismiss it as an issue, or when it was irrefutable,
become excessively punitive. Neither addresses what is going on.”

The toolkit she’ll discuss Thursday is designed to prevent either option
and help users engage everyone involved — not just a child or student.

“Everybody needs to be talking to everybody else because it’s a community
issue,” she said. “One of the most dangerous things right now is these
seemingly- minor incidents — like throwing up the sieg heil sign in the
cafeteria and then dealing with the student who did it — but unless every
kid who saw it knows that it was handled thoughtfully, then it wasn’t
handled.

“The goal is to help people respond more holistically in a way that’s going
to help not just the community, but the kid in question.”

After mass shootings in Gilroy, Calif., and El Paso, Texas — in which both
gunmen espoused white supremacist ideology — Flanagan said she’s received
more calls from people hoping to book speeches.

“I keep forgetting school is in three weeks,” she said. “This could be my
full-time job now: there is enough of a need for people to have these
conversations that I could do this full-time.”

Local members of Bend the Arc weren’t necessarily planning to have Flanagan
be the featured speaker for their second series, but they, too, were
motivated by the most recent string of mass shootings and the racist
ideology behind them.

“It’s domestic terrorism,” Maher said. “It’s horrifying. That is why we
want to educate people: so they recognize the signs. We don’t want
Champaign-Urbana to be next on the list. We can arm ourselves with
knowledge and this is the way to do it.”
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