In a twitter exchange with MSNBC host Touré Neblett, a child of Holocaust survivors asked: “How much do I owe for what Dems did in the first half of the century, while my family was in Europe running from Nazis, or in Dachau?” In other words, Jewish victims of the Nazis don’t owe “reparations” to African Americans for the injustices of the Jim Crow Era when “Dems” controlled the South.

Neblett responded: “The power of whiteness.” This follows a tweet by Ed Schulz, also associated with MSNBC, that gays “really [were] the ones being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany.”

Tal Fortgang, a Princeton student who refuted the blanket demand that whites “check your privilege,” wrote in the college paper that his family of Holocaust Survivors gave him the upbringing that paved his way to the Ivy League without any “privilege” except one: “It was their privilege to come to a country that grants equal protection under the law to its citizens, that cares not about religion or race, but the content of your character.”

An essay could be written on the growing cottage industry accusing Jews—even Holocaust Survivors—of enjoying “white privilege” compared to African Americans. After all, if even Hitler’s victims were “privileged,” then the argument is confirmed that all Jews must be.

Stung by criticisms, Neblett has since apologized for “oversimplifying.” But the implication remains. The question is where does such a distorted view—and related notions diminishing the Holocaust compared to the alleged “sixty million” (a figure inflated by around 50 million) victimized by the Atlantic slave trade—come from? (more…)