Lenny Kravitz, you're excused.
Please read Dan Charnas’s awe-inspiring posts about Black/Jewish relations. For whatever reason, I find myself in a similar place in feeling that it's really about time to put it all on the table. So this is my contribution...
It occurs to me that one of the main sticking points between the folks and the tribe is the following question:
"Jewish people have it good - why are they so touchy?"
It's problematic because, depending on your interpretation, it could be anything from a straight dis to a sincere attempt at understanding the Jewish experience. When asked sincerely, though, I think this is a completely legitimate question that really deserves an answer.
I think a lot of the problem actually comes from past attempts to build bridges between Blacks and Jews on the basis of common oppression. While well intentioned, these attempts often ignore the fact that racism and anti-Semitism are completely different. This is true at even at the most basic level: racism says that Black people are inferior; anti-Semitism says that Jews are evil. Those beliefs naturally manifest in very different ways and have to be fought with very different strategies. Considering them to be the same results in a distorted view from both sides.
From the African American perspective, I would imagine, Jews appear to be complaining about offenses that are negligible compared to the things that Black people deal with every day. Which is true.
From the Jewish perspective, well let me give you an analogy: You get a letter in the mail from someone who says they’re going to kill you and your family. You call your friend: "Hey, this guy says he’s coming to kill me…"And your friend replies, "What are you complaining about – you’re rich!" It’s like: yo, those two things have nothing to do with each other.
When Jewish people complain about anti-Semitism we are almost never complaining about the quality of our lives in general, we are complaining about people coming to kill us. For Jews, the experience of having difficult lives and having people try to kill us are not necessarily connected to each other. Certainly not to the extent that they have been for African Americans. So it would be natural from a Black perspective to question the seriousness of the threat to people whose daily lives just aren’t so tough. But what they’re missing is that when people have tried to kill us in the past, it’s often precisely because our lives aren’t so tough.
In other words, I think it’s really about the nature of anti-Semitism itself, which I’m only just beginning to understand. In practical terms, anti-Semitism is a weird combination of ongoing low-level distrust of Jews and then a sudden catalyst. Since you never know what the catalyst will be, it always comes up really fast and unexpectedly. Boom: "The Jews!" And, on top of that, part of what facilitates the hatred is people seeing the Jews doing well … So over the course of history, anti-Semitism tends to suddenly spring up just when things are going great.
I think this has bred an attitude – especially among older Jews – that
1) You have to be very aggressive in looking for anti-Semitism because it gets so bad so quickly, and
2) Even small incidents of anti-Semitism can keep the flame alive and lay the foundation for widespread problems later.
So the fears of Black anti-Semitism are not that Black people will do something to us. Nobody believes that. It’s more that they could preserve anti-Semitism until it’s taken up – very suddenly, no doubt – by someone that intends to do some real damage.
Two final semi-related thoughts:
1. Can we please just drop that whole "I’m not anti-Semitic because Arabs are Semites too and I don’t hate Arabs" argument. First of all, it’s just an argument about what the word "Anti-Semitism" means. So if it makes you feel better, we can call you a "Jew-Hater" or "Jewophobic" or whatever. Secondly, the word "Anti-Semitism" was created in the late 19th century by Jew-Haters who wanted to sound more scientific. The word was designed specifically to mean "anti-Jewish racism" – not "anti-Jewish –and/or-Arabic-ancestry-racism".
2. Jews are Arabs. Why can’t we just admit it?
It occurs to me that one of the main sticking points between the folks and the tribe is the following question:
"Jewish people have it good - why are they so touchy?"
It's problematic because, depending on your interpretation, it could be anything from a straight dis to a sincere attempt at understanding the Jewish experience. When asked sincerely, though, I think this is a completely legitimate question that really deserves an answer.
I think a lot of the problem actually comes from past attempts to build bridges between Blacks and Jews on the basis of common oppression. While well intentioned, these attempts often ignore the fact that racism and anti-Semitism are completely different. This is true at even at the most basic level: racism says that Black people are inferior; anti-Semitism says that Jews are evil. Those beliefs naturally manifest in very different ways and have to be fought with very different strategies. Considering them to be the same results in a distorted view from both sides.
From the African American perspective, I would imagine, Jews appear to be complaining about offenses that are negligible compared to the things that Black people deal with every day. Which is true.
From the Jewish perspective, well let me give you an analogy: You get a letter in the mail from someone who says they’re going to kill you and your family. You call your friend: "Hey, this guy says he’s coming to kill me…"And your friend replies, "What are you complaining about – you’re rich!" It’s like: yo, those two things have nothing to do with each other.
When Jewish people complain about anti-Semitism we are almost never complaining about the quality of our lives in general, we are complaining about people coming to kill us. For Jews, the experience of having difficult lives and having people try to kill us are not necessarily connected to each other. Certainly not to the extent that they have been for African Americans. So it would be natural from a Black perspective to question the seriousness of the threat to people whose daily lives just aren’t so tough. But what they’re missing is that when people have tried to kill us in the past, it’s often precisely because our lives aren’t so tough.
In other words, I think it’s really about the nature of anti-Semitism itself, which I’m only just beginning to understand. In practical terms, anti-Semitism is a weird combination of ongoing low-level distrust of Jews and then a sudden catalyst. Since you never know what the catalyst will be, it always comes up really fast and unexpectedly. Boom: "The Jews!" And, on top of that, part of what facilitates the hatred is people seeing the Jews doing well … So over the course of history, anti-Semitism tends to suddenly spring up just when things are going great.
I think this has bred an attitude – especially among older Jews – that
1) You have to be very aggressive in looking for anti-Semitism because it gets so bad so quickly, and
2) Even small incidents of anti-Semitism can keep the flame alive and lay the foundation for widespread problems later.
So the fears of Black anti-Semitism are not that Black people will do something to us. Nobody believes that. It’s more that they could preserve anti-Semitism until it’s taken up – very suddenly, no doubt – by someone that intends to do some real damage.
Two final semi-related thoughts:
1. Can we please just drop that whole "I’m not anti-Semitic because Arabs are Semites too and I don’t hate Arabs" argument. First of all, it’s just an argument about what the word "Anti-Semitism" means. So if it makes you feel better, we can call you a "Jew-Hater" or "Jewophobic" or whatever. Secondly, the word "Anti-Semitism" was created in the late 19th century by Jew-Haters who wanted to sound more scientific. The word was designed specifically to mean "anti-Jewish racism" – not "anti-Jewish –and/or-Arabic-ancestry-racism".
2. Jews are Arabs. Why can’t we just admit it?
posted by Joe Twist at 11:27 AM
7 Comments:
Joe:
What a great perspective.
Damn, I wish I'da thought a that... yes, white supremacy and anti-Semitism are two different things.
White supremacy is a thoughform that gained currency with rise of worldwide trade and capitalism, which used African slave labor as its currency. Therefore, white Europeans needed to de-humanize the African in order to justifty their abomination. So white supremacy, or racism, is about making Black people inferior.
ANti-Semitism, on the other hand? This is something to think about. When and how did it gain currency in Europe? Was it also economic in nature, or was it mostly about Christians in Europe needing a scapegoat? For whatever reason, the dynamic is very different. Europeans needed Jews to be evil, not inferior.
And yes, even the Holocaust came out of circumstances where Jews were comfortable and everything was pretty much hunky dory. Pre war Jews in Germany thought of themselves as citizens.
Luckily, Jews in America are protected from that anti-Semitic reflex by the presence of large non-white populations here; America is congenitally multicultural. Germany wasn't. As bad as racism gets here in America, the sheer presence of large numbers of a variety of different groups makes things a degree safer for Jews here.
Or does it?
Your thoughts?
Yeah... Jews are arabs. Or at least, we were 2000 years ago. Nice touch.
D
Joe,
I thought Charnas had the final word on this until I read your post (as a link from his website.) I wanna thank both of you for bringing such knowledgeable, insightful prespectives to the table. Why can't more voices be as open and honest!
On a side note, I remember reading a book about the similarity of Jewish and Arabic culture, that made a point about the term "Semitic" being actually very misleading, since it originally only referred to a specific language group (Hebrew and Arabic), not race or ethnicity. Therefore, a Jew who speaks only Yiddish would technically NOT be a "Semite" any more than an Arab who speaks only French! But since both languages came to be associated with both groups, the term "Semite" got distorted to mean race and religion, not just language.
Oh well, just a side note, FWIW. Keep up the brilliant work guys!
glad I found this place.
Great insight, in the more philosophical spectrum of the blogosphere (which is, as we all know, often diluted). Keep it up.
PS... fegudsake, Christians are originally Jews too!
They say siblings are the ones in a family that are most envious and aggressive towards each other; maybe this is one (rather Freudian) aspect of the whole Christians-vs-Jews-vs-Arabs thing...
This is true at even at the most basic level: racism says that Black people are inferior; anti-Semitism says that Jews are evil.
this is a very good point, & i think it gets at a fundamental truth
still, part of what makes it all so complicated is that it's not always true at other (non-basic?) levels - in other words, such truths certainly don't prevent racists from portraying blacks as evil (violent primitive voodoo rapists) or anti-semites from portraying jews as inferior (short, ugly, cunning but not really smart - think of every scifi jew stereotype: Watto, the Ferengi, etc.)
excellent thought-provoking stuff, btw.
As a very poor Jewish person that's had a considerably rough life I often look to the people at my synagogue and wonder what it it must be like to not have to struggle so much to get by.
I don't want to come across as "Hey I have black friends, I'm down!" but I must admit, at times we are brought together by our struggles (usually socially based, however) and can relate. At others, we just don't get each other.
I agree that indeed both Jews and African Americans have some things in common but overall, from what I have seen in my life so far...not many except in certain circumstances.
Dislike, stereotype, and distrust, all in the same vein cause so much turmoil for most everyone. I hope and pray that one day humanity will realize how ignorant we are.
I'm sorry if this post seems ignorant in itself, but I am glad to have read this article and picked up a bit of insight. Thank you.
This comment is not meant to offend, but please give proof if you disagree. The word semite comes from the name Shem, one of the sons of Noah . Shem had sons of all variations, not just olive skinned, or "fair-skinned" people. There are several instances where biblical jews are mistaken for Africans(dark races) (Moses, Joseph,and Solomom just to name a few of the greats. The point is that the trans atlantic slave trade brought Islamic Hebrews, or black jews. There is but one group of people who have suffered the curse that God put on Israel for disobeying him in the wilderness. that group of people are the children of Africa brought here by the European by God's permissive will.
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