Addenda to Racefail II: Electric BoogaJew

[xiphias]

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"?

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but I grew up in the rural South, and directly encountered zero stereotypes or myths about Jews. Not because everyone was absolutely openminded -- given other racial epithets and actions I observed, I wouldn't believe that -- but because it was so far off the radar, it never arose. I would read books where someone was described as "looking Jewish" or "having a Jewish name", and those phrases were completely meaningless to me (and largely still are, though I have enough datapoints now to sort of have an idea, just not a very firm one). I never knowingly met a Jew until my senior year in high school, and that was a friend I'd known for months before the subject of religion came up -- and when it did, it was no big deal, not just for me, but for anyone in our social circle. Mileage obviously varies, but in the parts of the South I know, anti-Semitism just wasn't an (expressed) issue.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, what parts of the South?

My wife grew up in Texas. I have cousins who grew up in South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia who all reported experiencing varying degrees of antisemitism. A very common problem: teachers who not only refused to give them time off for Jewish holidays but would deliberately schedule tests on those days and refuse to give makeup exams. Many were taunted by their classmates for being "Christ Killers" or worse. My cousins in Georgia woke up one night at 3am to find a cross burning on their lawn. I could go on.

My family living in the Northeast and Northwest wasn't subjected to even half as much prejudice.

I'm truly glad the area(s) you lived in were free of that sort of thing. Sincerely, it's nice to know. My impression of the South has always been pretty negative.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

The relevant areas would be Mississippi (early to mid 1980s), North Carolina (mid 80s through mid 90s), and Arkansas (mid to late 90s). I also lived in Georgia and Alabama, but was too young to be aware of the presence or absence of any form of discrimination. I was young enough in Mississippi that it would have to be pretty blatant, but old enough that I would remember if people were saying "Jews have horns" or things like that, which I never heard anywhere.

I am not saying that there was no antisemitism in these areas. I don't know that either way. I'm saying that there were no Jews, so far as I know, to bring out any antisemitic attitudes there may have been, and that what prejudices there were were not strong enough to be expressed without direct prompting, unlike some of the racial prejudices -- which were a minority attitude, but were clearly present. Had there been anyone asking for Jewish holidays off, I do not know if they would have encountered problems. I'd like to think not, but I don't know, But the myths and stereotypes I only encountered in fiction, not from people I knew.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I feel I should add that I'm not saying this was a positive trait in those areas -- I think growing up in more diverse communities would have, overall, been better. I am saying that "thinks Jews have horns, therefor probably Southern or otherwise hasn't been around any/many Jews" (as implied by jonquil's question) is bad logic -- the dearth of Jews in the communities where I grew up led to fewer stereotypes, not more.