A propaganda broadsheet has been produced and distributed by a group calling itself the “Occupy Kansas City Journal.” Leonard Zeskind, president of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, reports the broadsheet contains assertions usually reserved to the Aryan Nations and Ku Klux Klan. One panel of this broadsheet contains a depiction of a stereotypical Jew along with words: “So what have those ‘Great Humanitarians,’ the Jews, been pouring into the well of white culture over the past half century.”
The propaganda broadsheet at issue is available on a website www.occupykcjournal.com. It was also mailed to several Kansas City Council members.
Dated Jan. 22, 2011, it is a collage of photos and cartoons that are not appropriated to be republished in The Chronicle. It is graphic with more than one sexual scene, several unflattering photos and comments about President Barack Obama and nasty comments aimed at a variety of minorities.
A press conference was held Tuesday, March 13, to discuss the broadsheet. It was was attended by leading advocates from the Occupy Kansas City movement, including Michael Enriquez; Marvin Szneler, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee; Anita Russell, president of the Kansas City, Mo., branch of the NAACP; and Zeskind.
Zeskind said Enriquez spoke out strongly against the contents of the broadsheet, making it clear that Occupy Kansas City leaders did not agree with the material that was propagated in the movement’s name. Enriquez reiterated that the mainstream movement was not associated with the propaganda in any way.
Earlier Zeskind said such claims published in the broadsheet and on the website are both racist and anti-Semitic “and the fact that they are being made by a group using the ‘Occupy KC Journal.com,’ has magnified its import.”
At the press conference Szneler said when he saw the page, which he called the work of “purveyors of hate,” he really couldn’t make sense of the connections between all the images on the page. He noticed immediately, however, “that they are disgusting, racist, bigoted and hateful.”
“Like many bigots, they are equal opportunity haters. I am Jewish, but know full well that hatred against Jews is usually accompanied by hatred of African Americans, gays and lesbians, Hispanics and anyone who does not match the ideal description of the bigot.”
Szneler thanked those representing the mainstream Occupy Kansas City movement for stepping up at the press conference “to say no to hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism.”
“They not only are doing the right thing, but they remind each and every one of us, not only those assembled here today, but all of us, to speak up and say no to hatred. Whether it’s an innocent joke, bigoted comment, or an act of violence like this mailing — we cannot stand by quietly. We cannot tolerate hatred for one second.”
Zeskind pointed to a poll conducted in December 2011 by the Pew Research Center that found that 44 percent of Americans support the Occupy Wall Street movement, with an even larger number supporting its goals. He said large percentages of Americans, however, do not support the anti-Semitism and racism found in this broadsheet.