Ben M. Freeman
Role at the time: Author and writer for HonestReporting
Statement summary
Ben M. Freeman wrote in a HonestReporting article that Rula Jebreal's description of Hakeem Jeffries as an "AIPAC monkey" and "errand boy" delivers the two most recognizable slurs in the American vocabulary of anti-Black racism, and that it was not an unfortunate choice of words. He set the remarks against the history of anti-Black racism in the United States and the Arab world.
“When a Black man is called a monkey and a boy, there is no ambiguity. It is not an unfortunate choice of words. It is the two most recognizable slurs in the American vocabulary of anti-Black racism, delivered together, on a podcast that describes itself as being of the left.”
Commentary by Ben M. Freeman on HonestReporting, which describes its mission as ensuring truth, integrity and fairness in media coverage of Israel. It sets Rula Jebreal's remarks about Hakeem Jeffries against the history of anti-Black racism in the United States and the Arab world.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The case asks whether Rula Jebreal's description of Hakeem Jeffries as an "AIPAC monkey" and "errand boy" was racist. Freeman wrote that when a Black man is called a monkey and a boy there is no ambiguity, and that the words are the two most recognizable slurs in the American vocabulary of anti-Black racism. That expressly rejects the remarks as racist, so we labeled it Condemned.