Chutzpah

The Yiddish word “chutzpah” is one of many Yddish words that really doesn’t have an English equivalent. It’s generally defined as extreme gall. A favorite explanation is “chutzpah is when a defendant who has killed his mother and father throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan.”

And chutzpah was what came to mind when I read this article in the Washington Post about an organization founded by Stephen Miller, the loathsome little snake who encouraged Trump’s bigotries during the Orange One’s administration. Miller, as you may remember, was the architect of Trump’s family separation policy–a factoid that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him.

Miller has founded and leads something called “American First Legal” a “public service law firm” devoted to the preservation of White Supremacy. As the lede explains:

The deal in early 2021 was hailed by advocates for Black farmers as the most significant piece of legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — about $4 billion in President Biden’s massive pandemic stimulus package to rectify decades of discrimination. Minority farmers began investing in new machinery and other improvements, anticipating tens of thousands of dollars in government aid.

But today, the landmark deal on behalf of historically disadvantaged farmers is dead — successfully challenged in court by a fledgling conservative organization that argued the program racially discriminated against White farmers.

The organization describes itself as “the long-awaited answer to the ACLU” and it has embraced the racial grievance at the heart of Trump’s MAGA movement. The Post reports that it has filed dozens of federal lawsuits” opposing efforts to remedy racial disparities, support LGBTQ students and expand the pool of early voters.”

In other words, it is challenging the efforts of so-called “woke” Americans to level the playing field for previously marginalized people.

AFL-backed suits helped doom a $29 billion program that prioritized struggling female and minority-owned restaurants last year, and last week, a council created by the Department of Education that conservative parents groups viewed as partisan. AFL has won in part by consistently filing lawsuits in a conservative-friendly judicial district in Texas and taking advantage of a larger federal court system revamped by Trump’s predominantly conservative nominees.

Forum shopping has been a standard ploy of Rightwing groups worried that dispassionate judges who respect the rule of law will be less amenable to their claims– basically, claims that merely recognizing the claims of marginalized folks is discrimination against White people.

Many of these lawsuits are centered on making sure that White people remain in control and continue to benefit from unearned privileges, and on maintaining the systemic discriminatory policies that have harmed Black people and other people of color for generations,” said David Hinojosa, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “To argue that White men are being pushed to the back of the line is unfounded and ridiculous. What they’re being asked to do is share a place in line with other people who do not look like them.”

The article quotes Miller saying that what he calls “the equity agenda” represents one of the “single greatest threats to the survival of our constitutional system.”

Unsurprisingly, AFL’s  board is all White and all male. All are Trump loyalists (Mark Meadows is one), and they all attended Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement.  Miller helped write the speech.

AFL was also involved in the midterm elections, paying for a multimillion dollar ad campaign the Post described as “inflammatory”–with radio and TV spots demanding an end to “anti-white bigotry” and accusing the White House, businesses and universities of discriminating against White people.

Miller repeatedly complained during the campaign that Republican candidates were not talking enough about culture war issues and immigration and focusing too heavily on an economic message, people who spoke to him said. America “is the apex of achievement of Western civilization,” Miller said, with “a heritage to be jealously guarded.”

Miller’s organization has received significant contributions from the “usual suspects”–Rightwing bigots have deep pockets– allowing it to file at least four dozen lawsuits.

Miller is a Jewish version of Kanye West–aka “Ye”–who (among multiple other things) donned a “White Lives Matter” shirt to communicate his need to be accepted by those in power. Miller’s affinity for the MAGA movement reminds us that there were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis to save their skins–not many, but some.

In a letter about Miller’s anti-immigration stance, his uncle wrote that he’d watched with “dismay and increasing horror” as his nephew had become “the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country.”

Miller brings to mind another apt Yiddish word: a shanda. It’s Yiddish for a disgrace, a shame, and a terrible embarrassment.

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