CUMBO TURNS KNOCKOUT GAME ON CONSTITUENTS

Early this month Laurie Cumbo drafted a 1200-word letter to 35th Council District constituents-to-be, a personal analysis of the new troubles in Crown Heights, where Jews have been singled out by attackers of color in what appears to be the "Knockout Game."  She showed the letter first to a prominent Jewish spokesman.  He said, "Don't send it."  She sent it.

Her interpretation of the crime wave has thrown her into a negative spin cycle so enduring and news worthy as to be picked up by national talk radio and The Drudge Report.  Within hours of posting, she had offended just about everyone in Crown Heights, Jews especially, insinuated as causing animus:  "I shared that many African American/Caribbean residents expressed a genuine concern that as the Jewish community continues to grow, they will be pushed out by their Jewish Landlords, or by Jewish families looking to buy."

Ms. Cumbo apparently had no idea the genuine concern the term "Jewish landlords" would set off.  She soon learned, at least was told, it's a time-worn anti-Semitic slur.  Which is not to say there aren't rotten landlords who are Jewish, but to suggest a link between Jewish landlords and targeted hooliganism lines right up with fascist class warfare.  She wrote she was coming "from a place of wanting to get to the heart of the matter, as uncomfortable as that may be for many."  Uncomfortably, she goes on,  
"I am particularly inspired by the fact that the Jewish community has not assimilated to the dominant American culture...While I personally regard this level of tenacity, I also recognize that for others, the accomplishments of the Jewish community triggers (sic) feelings of resentment, a sense that Jewish success is not also their success."

It's hard to understand why someone so adrift in language would talk so much.  1200 words is a lot.  Ms. Cumbo has subsequently confessed what she wrote "was the opposite of my intention."  1200 words to say the opposite of what you want to say?  She offers she was trying to communicate her "profound desire to bring our diverse communities together."  Yet in just eleven words -- "the Jewish community has not assimilated to the dominant American culture" -- she says Jews don't fit in and the rest of us are the nasty-sounding "dominant American culture."  That's a one-two knockout.

Ms. Cumbo's context for the sidewalk beatdowns is the "governmental neglect, outside uncontrolled influences and failed leadership that so many people of color are facing."  In addition to Jewish landlords and Jewish success.  What is she saying?  If she really means lousy government causes people of color to turn to crime, that's a race blasphemy.  Knockout African Americans/Caribbeans.

Those who understand that race can lure the unwary to shipwreck sail clear.  Laurie Cumbo has yet to learn.  She talks race, frequently referring to "people who look like me" or "people who don't look like me."  A couple
of years ago she reached out to famously white-loathing Leonard Jeffries to speak at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art.  Dr. Jeffries calls whites "ice people [who] spread their filth through the universe."  Jews are "skunks [who] stunk up everything."  When asked what kind of world he wants to leave to his children, he answers, "A world without white people."  When the New York Post asked Ms. Cumbo how she could have welcomed a hater, she said he came to talk about a trip to Ghana.  Okay.

Last year Director Cumbo displayed the book, "Listen, Whitey!" in MoCADA's window.  Book noted.  Knockout whites.

Councilwoman Cumbo says, "We're in this together."  Some say, we're just stuck:  She's "ours" for the next four years.  Keep hope alive.  Maybe she'll learn.