Writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen has taken TV presenter Rachel Riley to task over her comments during a ‘car crash’ Channel 4 interview last night.

Riley told Channel 4’s Krish Guru-Murthy:

A clearly upset Rosen quickly took to social media to ask challenge Riley’s comment and ask her publicly what she meant:

Albert Einstein? Goldie Hawn? Sammy Davis Jnr? Pissarro? Joan Rivers? Kirk Douglas?Tony Curtis? https://t.co/t492NZXiwz — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

Rosen’s assessment of Riley’s comment was unequivocal:

A very popular public figure has made a classic antisemitic slur. The new era (according to @sajidjavid and other prominent Tories) say this sort of thing has to be rooted out. Or is their concern party political and not anti all antisemitism? https://t.co/hSDEitmIjU — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

But it wasn’t just Riley. As seen immediately above, numerous Twitter users jumped in to defend Riley and her comment – a comment that would have seen a very different reaction had a left-winger made it – and Rosen was quick to highlight the double standards:

1. RR has been making accusations of antisemitism for several weeks including at Noam Chomsky.

2. The phrase ‘I don’t look like a typical Jew or anything like that’ is an attack. ( I could explain but it’s painful territory)

3. I’m not piling in. I’m defending myself. https://t.co/tbpyVqWqVI — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

But just as conspicuous, at the time, was the complete absence of condemnation from some of the names that would be all over the comments had they been made by a left-winger. Rosen challenged them, too:

Here Rachel Riley says, ‘I don’t look like a typical Jew,’ pulls a face and laughs. What does a ‘typical Jew’ look like? Perhaps Dan Hodges can help? @lmharpin ? @JohnMannMP @IanAustinMP @sajidjavid @JewishNewsUK @JewishChron @MelanieLatest ?

Is there a style guide? https://t.co/Vhiq7YbLqz — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

Hello @JewishNewsUK @JewishChron what does ‘look like a Jew or anything like that’ mean? What is the ‘that’ ? Who is ‘anything like that’ ? What is ‘anything like that?’ Are there facial and bodily characteristics that I need to know about? https://t.co/nv6SsMpskn — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

I’m waiting for the most voluble of the antisemitism spotters to pick up on this: @lmharpin @JewishNewsUK @JewishChron @JohnMannMP @IanAustinMP @Freedland @NickCohen4

I’ve just looked in the mirror looking to see whether I look like @RachelRileyRR https://t.co/mcrC9hZXBw — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

At least one of the above wrote praising Riley’s interview without any mention of the antisemitic slur. When some of them eventually did respond and mention Riley’s comments it was – all too predictably – to attack Rosen, as did a number of the worst online ‘antisemitism trolls’, including non-Jews.

The sheer contortions conducted by some who wanted to defend Riley or dismiss her comment that brought some of dark humour to the fore:

I’ve asked her for the style guide. https://t.co/tto2pFFBQp — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

I wonder if she says I “look like a typical Jew”… https://t.co/2VcY3pHexj — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

But underlying it all was a genuine pain at the implications of the comment:

If you want to know the painful side of what @RachelRileyRR said: it’s lime this: plenty of Jews (as have others) have been mocked for their appearance for failing to conform to white western ‘ideals’ of ‘beauty’. RR is saying ‘I’m not like the ones you mock. I’m like you.’ — Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) January 9, 2019

Rosen told the SKWAWKBOX:

Rachel Riley said ‘I don’t look like a typical Jew or anything like that.’ There is a beauty league table in the West with the championship usually going to white western blondes. Many Jews have been mocked in many different ways for our appearance…not conforming to the western top spot. Ms Riley has used that and sided with the divisive competitive logic of that league table. But at the end of the day who is this ‘typical Jew’? A fantasy in the minds of Nazi cartoonists? Does Rachel Riley believe that those cartoonists got us right? What about Sammy Davis Jnr? Goldie Hawn? Kirk Douglas? Tony Curtis?

Rachel Riley was invited to comment, but had not responded by the time of publication.

SKWAWKBOX comment:

Rosen asked whether the response – or lack of it – from some of those who have been loudest in attacking the Labour meant that some of them are motivated by politics rather than a genuine concern to fight all antisemitism. It’s a fair question.



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