RaceFail II: The Wrath Of Cohen

Let me speak only for myself to start with.

Over the Recent Race Kerfluffle, where it became abundantly clear that, among other things, things are messy, people have been living with pain unrecognized outside of their communities for their whole lives, and people often don't understand each other, one thing that was brought up was the idea of white people trying to claim non-white status, for whatever reason, and in whatever way.

Speaking for myself: I sat on my hands for that. And now am not.

Because it's totally true that I have White Privilege. And I don't want to diminish the challenges that people who don't have that, who ARE visible minorities, face, challenges that I don't face. I don't want to make it all about MEMEMEMEME!, because it's not. And the things I deal with are very different than people whose skin colors, face shapes, or speech patterns are different than the majority in the area that they live.


I have White Privilege, I consciously USE it, even. But I don't feel "white". I feel like "The Other". I just feel like I hide it.

Other Jews have been posting about things that RaceFail made them consider -- I don't think any of these people are saying, "We have the SAME experience as black people, or Asians, or whatever." In the United States, we're not legally discriminated against. Being Jewish doesn't block us from marrying whom we choose, unlike some other "invisible", or semi-visible, minorities. We're not generally blocked from education, or jobs, or public life.

Here are three of the posts of people poking around at how being Jewish interacts with the topics brought up during RaceFail:

http://rosefox.livejournal.com/1452657.html
http://abyssinia4077.livejournal.com/274444.html
http://fjm.livejournal.com/728228.html

And yet . . . we don't take our lack-of-significant-oppressedness for granted.

These past fifty years or so, in the United States, have been good. Like under Alexander, some of the times under the Roman Empire, a fair portion of the Caliphate.

But I think many of us consider this to be just part of the way the world goes. Right now is good. That doesn't mean that things will always be good. Hamas or other anti-Zionist organizations will, eventually, get enough friends that people will decide that the Jews don't have any right to Israel -- after all, the Jews killed the Canaanites to get the land, the Canaanites are the Phoenicians, and the Phoenicians are the Palestinians, so they get the right to the land, and the Jews should be kicked out. And, when that happens, the worldwide backlash will include more violence against Jews, and that may well happen within my lifetime, which is one of the reasons my wife and I can shoot, do everything we can to maintain friendly relationships with our neighbors, and think about having skills that are portable in case we have to run.

Because we have White Privilege. But privileges can be granted, and can be revoked. And history is NOT a smooth march toward equality. There are better times, and worse times. Worse times will come, and those who have ANY mark of difference must be prepared for them, even if "worse times" are not NOW.

Who is white? In the United States, right now, Jews, Irish, Italians, and Poles are all white.

But Italians are not white in North Linconshire in England right now. Their "whiteness" was revoked. "British jobs for British workers".

I've got people on my friendslist who can testify to just how tenuous the Irish hold on "whiteness" is in England.

I'm white. Right now. But I'm deeply aware that that could change with really no more than a few months' warning. And that affects how I look at the world.

Addenda to Racefail II: Electric BoogaJew

Here's a bunch of other disconnected thoughts about Judaism and minority. These are mostly random things thrown out there. These do not form any sort of coherent narrative or argument; they're just . . . things floating around my head. These are somewhat more likely to be accidentally offensive, because they're not well-thought through, and VASTLY more likely to be useless.

I tend to try to pay careful attention to what things will have effects on the global and local perception of Jews as a group. Because of that, I'm deeply worried about the effect that the Bernie Madoff scandal had, and will have long-term, as well as the whole military mess attacking Hamas in Gaza.

That said, "Bernie Madoff and the Gaza Incursion" sounds like an early-seventies experimental electronica concept album.

Other people have been talking about "visible Jewishness". For me, that's a weird concept. I mean, my name is Ian Osmond. My mother is Matia Angelou. I'm in a Jewish community where last names like "O'Sullivan" and "Murphy" aren't uncommon. My shul attracts a lot of intermarried families, converts, and families with adopted kids, so, year to year, my classroom tends to be about 50% white, with the rest being a mix of Asian, mainly Chinese, Latino/a, and Black. Or mixed-race of any of the above.

Now, obviously, those students can't pass as "not Asian/Hispanic/Black", but they COULD pass as "not-Jewish." They're on TWO axes of minority. And "Jewish" is the less blatant one.

As BenG Jackson, may her memory be a blessing, pointed out -- she rarely got shit for being Jewish. Mostly, she was too busy getting shit for being, poor, black, and female. People would have to get through all of those to start oppressing her for her religion, and who has time? They just settled for the easier three.
Being Jewish and NOT any of the other things allows one to pass as white whenever one wishes, at least, until society decides to crack down on being Jewish.

Is "being able to pass for the majority whenever one wishes" the same thing as "being in the majority?"

In general, would being "a minority who can pretend not to be" get one shit from other minorities folks without that superpower?

What ABOUT the disconnect between internal and external minority identification? "Oreo", "banana/Twinkie", "high yellow". The first two are people who have the EXTERNAL markers without the INTERNAL identification. The last? Someone who lacks the EXTERNAL markers.

And NONE of the three are nice things to say about someone.

Are Jews inherently "high yellow"?

Colorado finally enters the 19th Century.

Radley Balko (http://www.theagitator,com) found a story about a jury in Colorado finding a man innocent of illegal gambling charges.

The guy had been playing poker for money in his garage, The prosecution actually dropped their serious charge, "professional gambling", before going to trial, leaving him only facing the minor charge of "illegal gambling", which carried a maximum penalty of a $100 fine.

But the jury found him innocent of even that.

The defense successfully argued that poker is not an illegal game of chance, but is rather a game of skill.

And that pinged something in my memory.
( So, Ian, what DID that ping in your mind? )

Things nobody needs, but I nonetheless want.

http://www.leatherman.com/argentum/collection/