(Jewish Group) The anti-Semitism intersectionality gap

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

My mom is stoic and rarely ever cries. Last week she FaceTimed me from California, dewy-eyed, while I was in the subway in New York. She mentioned the news—11 Jews shot in a synagogue in Pennsylvania. I had already read about it in the morning, but talking about it with my mom forced me to feel it.

She told me, “It’s okay to feel sad.”

I forget sometimes that I’m allowed to feel sad for Jews. The discourse in the School of Social Work around anti-Semitism has dwindled in large part due to the hyperbolic conflation of Jewishness with whiteness. I am therefore quick to forget that Columbia often fails to treat anti-Semitism with the legitimacy it deserves. My mom’s simple acknowledgement allowing me to feel Jewish pain reminded me that it was ok to feel so deeply.

My experience in the Columbia School of Social Work has often made me feel hollow. It can seem like I have no role as a Jew in both the course curriculum and in class discussions. “How Jews Became White Folks” is my school’s single mandatory reading regarding Jewish people in contemporary society. And, even though this piece takes a dive into important assimilation markers of the American Jew, this is only a 20-page reading shoved in among the several books and 40 articles that make up our curriculum. In discussions, fellow classmates have confessed that they have become frustrated when Jewish people speak up about their experiences. On one occasion, I tried to explain to a close peer how my Jewishness guides my social justice work and she told me that I needed to stop talking, since my white privilege dominated any authentic form of solidarity I could claim as a Jewish person. During my time at Columbia, I often wonder if I truly belong at the School of Social Work.

Why do my peers dismiss my Jewish identity due to my white skin? Why do I feel so disingenuous for being Jewish in social justice work?

more...

[Behind the Aegis]

1. And unsurprisingly....

...some privileged POS responds, ignoring the anti-Semitism, well, giving it the mandated number of crocodilian tears, before demonstrating his need to "gentilesplain'" as well as espouse his own white bigotry, though, I am sure he doesn't see it, like most assholes like him do not.

Letter to the Editor: Confronting Whiteness

Please do read this privileged twaddle and it becomes crystal clear why anti-Semitism is marginalized by supposed "champions" of diversity.

[MosheFeingold]

2. What I got out of that is

White people (whatever that means) don't consider Jewish people really white and non-white people (whatever that means) consider Jewish people white (whatever that means).

And so it's OK to hate Jewish people in these circles, but just do it subtlety.

Also, I don't know what "identifying as Jewish" means. You are either Jewish by birth or you convert, both being equally valid.

I also got the impression that this school is really obsessed with race, which strikes me as majoring in the minors in social work. Racism/sexism/whateverism is a serious problem, but 90% of the problems you deal with as a social worker are things like "dad is in prison and mom takes drugs and beats me". The kid (the victim) is any race/creed/whatever.

Race can have a factor in all that, but drugs, crime, and crappy parenting issues transcends all race, creeds, and ethnicities, such that it's almost statistical noise.