we trusted in liberal democracy once, and (to be literal but tasteless) we got burned. Ouch. But I do think this is the key. A lot of people took the Holocaust to be an object lesson that paranoids have enemies too, and see another one waiting behind every anti-Semitic comment. It's a hard mindset to get past.
Coupla responses to the main entry: I think it's worth remembering, when discussing socially construction of race and such, that this conversation about who is and isn't white is much larger. Italians, Eastern Europeans, even Irish people weren't considered white for a long time in this country. And there was, in fact, systematic discrimination against them and against Jews, in terms of housing, employment, education and so forth. I'm not saying that it's comparable to segregation and the racism faced by African Americans because it clearly wasn't, just a clarification.
Another thing to think about is the way that negative stereotypes of Jews differ from stereotypes of other groups. It's not that we're dirty / stupid / poor / what-have-you, it's the opposite. Jews are too powerful, they're running the world secretly, etc. It's been a justification for a lot of violence. I can see understand a gut-level response that "we're oppressed too!", as obnoxious as it is. The one thing you don't want is for your power to be overestimated.
Someone who's written very well on the nature of anti-Semitism and how it relates to other prejudices (particularly racism and sexism) is Letty Cottin Pogrebin in Deborah, Golda and Me. Worth checking out.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-31 04:53 pm (UTC)Ouch. But I do think this is the key. A lot of people took the Holocaust to be an object lesson that paranoids have enemies too, and see another one waiting behind every anti-Semitic comment. It's a hard mindset to get past.
Coupla responses to the main entry: I think it's worth remembering, when discussing socially construction of race and such, that this conversation about who is and isn't white is much larger. Italians, Eastern Europeans, even Irish people weren't considered white for a long time in this country. And there was, in fact, systematic discrimination against them and against Jews, in terms of housing, employment, education and so forth. I'm not saying that it's comparable to segregation and the racism faced by African Americans because it clearly wasn't, just a clarification.
Another thing to think about is the way that negative stereotypes of Jews differ from stereotypes of other groups. It's not that we're dirty / stupid / poor / what-have-you, it's the opposite. Jews are too powerful, they're running the world secretly, etc. It's been a justification for a lot of violence. I can see understand a gut-level response that "we're oppressed too!", as obnoxious as it is. The one thing you don't want is for your power to be overestimated.
Someone who's written very well on the nature of anti-Semitism and how it relates to other prejudices (particularly racism and sexism) is Letty Cottin Pogrebin in Deborah, Golda and Me. Worth checking out.