A Palestinian journalist blew right through the forbidden red line of African American racist terms by referring to black House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as a “monkey” and a “boy.”
Now, former MSNBC commentator Rula Jebreal is trying to explain, but black lawmakers are having none of it.
Specifically, Jebreal took fire from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Friday after she called Jeffries an “AIPAC monkey” — the acronym a reference to the pro-Israel lobby group American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — and then an “errand boy,” a description dangerously close to the definition of a slave.
Jebreal used the epithets during an appearance on Wajahat Ali’s The Left Hook podcast where she criticized the black Democrat’s support for Israel and accused him of doing the bidding of AIPAC.
“His name is Hakeem. ‘Hakeem’ is an Arabic name which means ‘healer.’ He’s not a healer, he’s a divider,” Jebreal said, the New York Post reported.
“He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey,” she continued. “With all due respect — and I don’t mean it in a racist way.”
“He is just basically an errand boy, and we’re done and tired,” Jebreal said.
After Jabreal’s rant, Ali tried to bail her out of linguistic trouble, interjecting that using the term “monkey” has “terrible racial connotations… but I think you caught yourself and said you didn’t mean it with any racial animosity.”
Hellbound and Down 