A fight inside the Democratic coalition is heating up, with progressives accusing party centrists of using racism charges as a political weapon — bad for establishment Democrats' credibility, useful for the left's anti-war and anti-corporate wing.

• A Palestinian-Nigerian journalist, Rua, attacked House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries over money he has taken from the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, then slipped and called him an "AIPAC monkey."
• She apologized right away and said she did not mean it in a racial way, but corporate Democrats seized on the remark.
• The charge: centrists reach for racism and sexism accusations mainly when someone threatens them, while their own leaders never face the same scrutiny.
• Bernie Sanders got hit with sexism claims at his peak, and anti-war figures like Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul got branded, while Harry Reid, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton skated.
• The broader argument: racism is real and worth fighting, but it sits below genocide on any honest scale of outrage, and the left loses when it refuses to rank harms.

Outlook: Expect more of these identity-based attacks as progressives challenge party leadership over Israel and corporate money heading into the next primaries.