The Canceling of Leonard Zeskind

Gotta give The New York Times credit for devoting a healthy chunk of space to the life and work of Leonard Zeskind, who died the other day of cancer.

At age 75--too damn young, as far as I’m concerned.

Zeskind’s expertise was the right, as in MAGA and all of its ugly, evil, hateful antecedents. About how he learned so much, Zeskind once wisecracked: “For a nice Jewish boy, I’ve gone to more Klan rallies, neo-Nazi events and Posse Comitatus things than anybody should ever have to.”

Thank you, Mr. Z–someone had to do it.

It was Zeskind who realized Republicans were fostering hate against immigrants to fuel the rise of David Duke and Pat Buchanan and, eventually, Trump.

He wrote a book about it–Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement From the Margins to the Mainstream.

Maya got cancelled, too...

Came out in 2009, just after Obama’s first election. This paragraph by Trip Gabriel from the Times sorta sums up the book’s themes…

“Before the 1960s, white supremacists fought to maintain the status quo of segregation, especially in the South. But after the era of civil rights victories, he maintained, white nationalists began to see themselves as an oppressed group, victims who needed to mount an insurgency against the establishment.

“Their principal adversaries were immigrants from the developing world who were tilting the demographics of the United States away from earlier waves of Northern Europeans.”

In short, the oppressors transformed themselves into the victims. And they’ve been feeling sorry for themselves ever since. 

Many liberals ripped the book on the grounds that racism must be dead cause so many white people voted for Obama. Take it away, Trip Gabriel…

“The Los Angeles Times waved away those hate groups as questing after `an impossible future.’ NPR noted that `while a handful of bigots’ were still grumbling about the South’s defeat in the Civil War and spreading conspiracies about Jews, `some 70 million others have, in a testament to the overwhelming tolerance of contemporary American society, gone ahead and elected Barack Obama president.’

“Mr. Zeskind insisted that white nationalists should not be underestimated, and he was especially concerned about their influence on Republican politics.”

Sad to say–Zeskind was correct. As we learned in 2016 and 2024 and—well, we’re still learning it. For example…

Trump’s goons recently removed Blood and Politics from the U.S. Naval Academy library. Part of Trump’s purge of books that make white people feel bad about themselves. In contrast, Mein Kampf remains on the Naval Academy library shelf. Like I said—Zeskind tried to warn us.

You could argue that getting canceled by Trump is a great honor. So long as we come to our senses and elect a president who will restore Blood and Politics to the Naval Academy shelf. Along with Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Trump's goons cancelled that book as well.

Rest in peace, Leonard Zeskind–you were way ahead of your time.