A gunman murdered three Black people at a Dollar General store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Jacksonville, Fla. over the weekend. The gunman painted nazi swastikas on one of the two murder weapons, and he left behind multiple manifestos spelling out his hatred for Black people, demonstrating how the gunman harbored deep-rooted hateful ideologies. The gunman’s original target was Edward Waters University, an HBCU, but he was removed from campus by security.

 

Conversation online includes tributes to the three victims: Angela Michelle Carr, 52, Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19, and Jerrald Gallion, 29. Many expressed grief and outrage over yet another racially-motivated attack in America. Some pointed out how the attack occurred on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, showing that the country has a long way to go in addressing racism and bigotry. 

 

This horrific act of anti-Black racism is a tragic reminder of the dangers of unchecked hate. All communities must stand together against intolerance to ensure that hate-fueled tragedies like the one in Jacksonville do not happen again.

 

The 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led over a quarter million people in Washington, D.C. and delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, was celebrated over the weekend.

 

Drum Major Institute co-hosted the event along with FCAS partners NAACP, ADL, UnidosUS, National Urban League, and other organizations, at the Lincoln Memorial, the same place where the march started six decades ago, to honor the occasion. The event featured five hours of speeches that highlighted the continued need for everyone to stand up to all forms of hate. Speakers included actor Sacha Baron Cohen, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), lawyer and activist Ben Crump, and FCAS founder Robert K. Kraft.

 

On social media, many people applauded the speeches and reflected on the need to continue fighting for civil rights for all people.

Online conversations about antisemitic vandalism have more than quadrupled this past week as users shared stories to raise awareness on recent incidents. 

 

Antisemitic graffiti of a swastika and the words “club Aryan excellent” was discovered on a pedestrian tunnel under a bridge in North Bethesda, Md. The tunnel is located by a neighborhood with a large Jewish population and is within a mile of multiple Jewish institutions and synagogues. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) was among those who voiced outrage over the act. The Montgomery County Police Department registered a 55% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in 2022 as the county became a hotbed for antisemitism in the late months of last year. 

 

In addition, murals at two LGBTQ+ centers in Orlando, Fla., were defaced with anti-LGBTQ+ messages and swastikas over the weekend. After the vandalism was reported, the local community came together to clean up the graffiti and repaint the murals. Another mural decrying the ongoing war in Ukraine in Rogers Park, Ill., was defaced with multiple swastikas. In a similar event, a samaritan walking by painted over the swastikas with hearts. On social media, people expressed their shock over the hateful vandalism.

Other incidents of antisemitic vandalism were reported in Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, and California.

 

“The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” is an antisemitic publication that sought to spread lies and conspiracy theories about Jews. Although it was first published in 1903 and revealed as a fabrication soon after, the lies perpetuated by the publication continue to permeate conversation today.

Several separate conversations drove mentions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion this week including an overtly antisemitic thread which spewed many lies from the publication. In the United Kingdom, the government announced they would stop funding mosques who host hate speeches after a Jewish Chronicle investigation revealed this to be a rampant issue with one mosque hosting a speaker who proudly espouses views from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

 

 

FCAS is actively monitoring mentions of #BanTheADL on X, which dramatically increased on Thursday after former UFC fighter Jake Shields posted an image of the hashtag and urged his followers to incorporate it into their posts to make it go viral.

Following this post, many people started using the hashtag to direct their hatred towards the ADL and made it a trending hashtag overnight. While the initial post was targeted at the ADL and not Jews, many of Shields’ followers began spewing white supremacist and antisemitic views as they took this viral opportunity to share their hateful views.

 

FCAS will continue to monitor this emerging topic.

 

 

 

 

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