But don’t worry, supporters of the March, because there’s a new defender of the group: Karen Fleshman. The founder of Racy Conversations — an antiracist organization — wrote on December 28 that she had interacted with some of the Women’s March leaders who have made anti-Semitic statements, including Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour. Fleshman said she didn’t witness “a single act of anti-Semitism or exclusionary behavior the entire time” she was with these members or at protests organized by the group.
“I firmly believe Vladimir Putin is behind the campaign to tear apart the Women’s March,” Fleshman wrote, linking to an opinion article from The Washington Post claiming Russians targeted black voters in 2016.
“Right now, we see messaging to white women seeking to divert our political energy away from feeling angry at Republicans and towards feeling angry about anti-Semitism, but not the anti-Semitism expressed in Charlottesville, Pittsburg, and the countless other anti-Semitic attacks by white nationalists,” Fleshman wrote. “Instead, we are directed to feel angry about the anti-Semitic views expressed by Minister Louis Farrakhan, and allegedly by Women’s March leaders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour.”
Fleshman’s post predictably received a backlash, so she added an “addendum” that didn’t make things any better.
“It was never my intent to portray Jewish critics of the Women’s March leaders as Russian agents, and in so doing, play into the canard that Jewish people are foreign agents who are disloyal to America, but that was clearly my impact, and I am sorry. I hear you that my theory is particularly unwelcome at a time of rising anti-Semitism. As you point out, I have a lot to learn about anti-Semitism, and it’s hard to accurately capture what is happening in this situation without an understanding of anti-Semitism,” Fleshman wrote. – READ MORE