New York Times: Fire Thomas Friedman!
The New York Times
(2).png)
On February 2, 2024, The New York Times published a disturbing column by Thomas Friedman calling Middle Eastern countries insects -- and labeling the Middle East a "jungle."
This is racist and genocidal language. Please join our campaign and call on The New York Times to fire Thomas Friedman and name every editor who approved this ugly column for publication.
In Friedman’s column, he compared Iran to a "parasitoid wasp." He also compared Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq to "caterpillars" and Hamas to a "trap-door spider." Meanwhile, Friedman compared the U.S. to an "old lion" and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a specific kind of monkey -- the "sifaka lemur."
See how this kind of racism works? To Friedman, Muslim and Arab majority societies are insects, while the U.S. and Israel are represented by more intelligent animals.
This type of genocidal language has deep roots. Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany used similar genocidal language when he described Jews in profoundly anti-Semitic ways, including as “parasites.” And before launching their genocide, Rwanda’s Hutu politicians described the country’s Tutsi ethnic group as “cockroaches.”
Join our campaign to hold The New York Times accountable for publishing this racist garbage.
Once you sign this petition, we will send you meaningful actions that you can take to hold The New York Times' editors and managers accountable.
Take the first step and join our campaign by reading and signing the petition on this page now.
—------------
SOURCES:
1. "Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom," The New York Times, Thomas Friedman, Feb. 2, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/30/opinion/thepoint?smid=url-share#friedman-middle-east-animals (also archived here: https://archive.is/j2v1D)
2. “"Extracts From Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler," Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Memorial Center, https://www.yadvashem.org/docs/extracts-from-mein-kampf.html (Original: “Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), Adolf Hitler, Houghton Mifflin, New York: Hutchinson Publ. Ltd., London, 1969).
3. “Human Beings Are Not Insects, Vermin, Parasites, or Garbage,” Pamela B. Paresky Ph.D., Psychology Today, September 1, 2019, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-and-the-pursuit-leadership/201909/human-beings-are-not-insects-vermin-parasites-or
4. “Rwandan Who Called Tutsis ‘Cockroaches’ in 1992 Gets Life Sentence,” Siobhán O'Grady, Foreign Policy, April 15, 2016, https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/15/rwandan-who-called-tutsis-cockroaches-in-1992-gets-life-sentence/
(Photo of Thomas Friedman used under Creative Commons license from Charles Haynes.)
Sponsored by
To:
The New York Times
From:
[Your Name]
We are horrified that The New York Times published a column by Thomas Friedman comparing Muslim and Arab-majority Middle Eastern countries to insects and calling the Middle East a "jungle."
This is dehumanizing, racist, and genocidal language.
We call on The New York Times to take these five immediate steps now:
1. Fire Thomas Friedman.
2. Retract Friedman’s racist column.
3. Name the editors who approved Friedman’s column for publication.
4. Publish a formal public apology.
No newspaper or media outlet should ever use such racist or genocidal language.