Rabbi Avram Mlotek (right) interviewed Benjamin Hoss Mcdowell, a repentant white supremacist who for planning a violent attack against a Jewish community in South Carolina.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
No lives were lost. No lasting physical harm was done, though the synagogue members certainly felt threatened and terrified. I read the news item online and, though I didn\u2019t yet know the word, doomscrolled onward.<\/p>\n
I probably wouldn\u2019t have thought much about McDowell again had I not seen a video of him in my Facebook feed three years later. Rabba Karpov, the rabbi of Jewish Center of Indian Country, Oklahoma, had posted a Youtube video uploaded by McDowell in which he expressed remorse for his past behavior. (The video has since been removed, though I don\u2019t know why or by whom).<\/p>\n
I watched the video and was genuinely moved. Something had happened to Benji while in prison. Here he was, talking about the power of love and light to transcend differences, political and religious, and how we were all part of one larger human family. How many of us have undergone such a profound, public transformation from deadly darkness to hope? How many ex-White Supremacists are out there seeking to amend their past ways?<\/p>\n
A few nights before I had watched the film \u201cBurden,\u201d which tells the true story of how a Black minister, Reverend Kennedy, welcomed a former KKK member, Mike Burden, into his home and changed his life forever. Inspired by this radical act of loving kindness on the reverend\u2019s part, I felt compelled to act on the video of McDowell. I reached out to him directly on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Even though I have invited anti-Semites into my home before, I generally believe it is not the Jewish people\u2019s responsibility to combat anti-Semitism \u2014 in the same way that it is not Black people\u2019s responsibility to dismantle systemic racism. Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia are prejudices which plague society, and we as a nation bear a communal responsibility towards eradicating them.<\/p>\n
But a communal responsibility is fulfilled through countless individual acts. And I knew that encounters with people from such a polar opposite outlook can be sacred and potentially profoundly impactful.
He described meeting with an undercover FBI agent who was ready to sell him weapons to use against the Jewish community. The FBI had tracked his hateful rhetoric online and sought to see just how close this one blogger was to bringing his online musings into fruition.<\/p>\n
What struck me most during our conversation \u2014 which took place on Sept. 14, right before Rosh Hashanah \u2014 was the dissonance McDowell described between his online and real-life experiences. Online, he was being inculcated with and reflecting back an ideology centered on the idea that Black people and Jews are destroying society. But he said that even when he was writing hateful messages about Black people online, he always treated them fairly when he countered them in real life.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Jews?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
He had never met a Jew before. Our conversation, he said, was the first time he had knowingly spoken to a Jew.<\/p>\n
The Rabbis of the Talmud wrote of the spiritual potency of teshuvah, a genuine return to one\u2019s self, heartfelt repentance. They wrote that teshuvah has the power to transform one\u2019s intentional sins into meritorious deeds. A preposterous sentiment! However, when speaking with Benji, I saw how teshuvah indeed could be seen this way.<\/p>\n
His intentional hateful acts had brought him to this meritorious place of seeking out reconciliation.
How many of us have given up on Fox News viewers, or MSNBC viewers, because they are dead set in their ways? How many of us refuse to engage with someone who says \u201cAll Lives Matter\u201d or \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d because we are so disgusted by the sentiments we think are motivating them? If Benji has taught me anything, it is to never believe the lie that we are conditioned to believe: that people cannot change. People can.<\/p>\n
It is ironic that I encountered Benji through Facebook, a social media giant which is often under criticism for fueling misinformation and polarization. I myself experienced Facebook\u2019s mishandling of hate speech when its moderators removed a post I wrote about being assaulted by Farrakhan supporters on a subway car.<\/p>\n
The platform, for all of its flaws, permitted Benji and me to connect. But as Benji himself puts it, it was also the echo chamber of the online groups he had found, which further fueled his toxic thinking. If Facebook chose to actively combat misinformation and hate speech, who knows how many Benjis would be steered away from falsehoods? Facebook\u2019s new policy banning Holocaust denial on its platform is a welcome change that comes several years too late.<\/p>\n
In the age of COVID-19, we are online now more than ever. For me, Benji\u2019s story is serving as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of echo-chambers, a reminder to Facebook of the heavy burden they now carry as a connector of people.<\/p>\n
But may we also remember that there are people behind the profiles. Real human beings with emotional range and capacity. Let us never lose sight of each other\u2019s humanity, no matter how deeply we doomscroll.<\/p>\n
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