These are difficult times for Carl Benjamin, who styles himself Sargon of Akkad, as he strives to keep his candidacy for the European Parliament elections on the road, while fending off inconvenient questions about his past statements. Moreover, his problems are not restricted to the hit piece the Mail on Sunday executed last weekend, but now include serious and credible accusations of anti-Semitic behaviour.
Benjamin has a habit of dressing up his prejudices as justified because he is only pointing out “institutional privilege”. Hence his claim that it is OK to call Asian people “Chinks” “Because Asians are privileged. In almost every walk of life, Asians make more money [what does that remind you of?], they have better results, and they do better in life than me, just a dumb-ass cracker. So when Asians are filling up all of those top spots in better proportion than white people [?] you have to understand you have institutional privilege”.
That stance is now getting him into a whole lot more trouble, after BuzzFeed News reported that Benjamin had discussed Jewish people during an appearance in New York City last year. After starting off with “Jewish people do very well in our societies. That’s to their credit, they work hard. It’s not that this is illegitimately gained”, it all went wrong.
He just had to be EDGY. “But then I can see why people are resentful that successful, rich, well-off people, who are well connected, who are socially very advanced, are then playing the game of identity politics as well. I can see why it doesn’t seem fair. It seems like an unfair defence, an unfair advantage that they have. If someone were to say, ‘Well that’s anti-semitic thing to say,’ it would sound to me like someone criticising feminism and being called a misogynist. To me it’s just another brand of identity politics”.
Could it get worse? “Jewish people are very smart, they work very hard, of course they’re successful, if we want to even have any idea that we’re living in a meritocracy, if Jews weren’t succeeding in our societies they must be being held back. But they’re not, they’re doing great, because they’re not being held back, because they do work hard, because they are smart. We need Jewish people, unfortunately for them, have got to drop the identity politics. I’m sorry about the Holocaust but I don’t give a shit. I’m sorry”.
The Jewish Chronicle was clearly, and justifiably, unimpressed. “Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin accused Jewish people of 'identity politics' over the Holocaust … Controversial alt-right YouTuber revealed to have said 'I don't give a s***' about the Shoah”. What Benjamin said was not “edgy”. It was blatantly anti-Semitic.
Jewish News was also unimpressed. “UKIP candidate: ‘I’m sorry about the Holocaust but I don’t give a s***’ … Carl Benjamin has employed racial and homophobic slurs in YouTube videos, including antisemitic tropes about Jews”. No doubt Benjamin will be able to justify his comments by claiming that it’s all about FREEZE PEACH and maybe even “Satire”.
Meanwhile, those who can smell racist bigotry at forty paces will already have made their own minds up. To paraphrase Steve Bray, it’s not going very well, Kippers, is it?
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at
No comments:
Post a Comment