"I don’t use the term “bigotry” lightly; it’s an accurate description of a remark Weinberg made some months ago in Austin. I had never spoken of that conversation publicly -- until I read last week that he had canceled a talk at a London university, citing what he called “a widespread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic current in British opinion.”
Weinberg and I are both employed at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s one of the university’s most celebrated faculty members, a highly touted Nobel laureate in physics, a professor who is often spotlighted by administrators to bolster UT’s claim to being a “world-class” university. I’m a professor of journalism who is, to say the least, not quite as accomplished or celebrated."
“Don’t romanticize Palestinians just because they are primitive.” Primitive? What could he mean by that? Was he just being provocative, to see how I would react? Whatever the answer, I had a hard time believing that a Nobel Prize winner would -- for whatever reason -- say something so ugly. So, when I read in the British press that Weinberg was lecturing Brits about morality and prejudice, my mind went back not only to his comment but to my decision for nearly nine months to not speak about his comment. Why had I not written about this immediately, contrasting his moral critique of the Presbyterian Church’s policy with his own bigoted comment? Without recognizing it, had I internalized a fear of being targeted? I have written and spoken in favor of the application of international law and moral principle to redress Israeli crimes, but was I reluctant to tangle with a well-known figure because I didn’t want to be called anti-Semitic myself?
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