Quote for the day

Paul R. Pillar, Georgetown University:

disagreement with policies of a state (or policies toward the state) is not the same as prejudice against people who live in that state. To discern some similarities with prejudicially based views does not mean the views one is discerning are themselves based on ethnic prejudice. Criticism of policies of Arab states (or of the leaders of the stateless Palestinians) is not to be equated with prejudice against Arabs or Muslims, even though such prejudice is quite evident, including among many Americans. Criticism of policies of Israel is not to be equated with anti-Semitic (or to be more precise, anti-Jewish; Arabs are Semites too) sentiment, even though anti-Semitism unfortunately is still very much alive and in some places even growing. Criticism of policies of China is not to be equated with prejudice against people of East Asian ethnicity, even though such prejudice has been very much in evidence in some ugly chapters of American history. And so forth.

As with any other ad hominem argument, to hurl a charge of ethnic prejudice at someone on the other side of a policy discussion generates only heat, not light. It suggests the hurler’s own substantive case is weak. And to affix the label of ethnic prejudice where it does not apply risks devaluing laudable efforts to expose it and combat it where the label does apply.