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Behind the Aegis

(53,833 posts)
Wed Jan 9, 2019, 06:56 AM Jan 2019

(Jewish Group) Can We Finally Admit That Jews Can Be Both White And Oppressed?

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

The discussion over whether or not European Jews are white is like the herpes of Jewish thought spaces. No one enjoys it. It makes your skin itch and crawl. And it keeps popping up out of nowhere.

--snip--

I did this because in social justice-focused spaces, Jews have been gaslit about the gravity of anti-Semitism. We’re not taken seriously and neither is our oppression. Whenever we speak out against the prejudice we face, we’re told we are privileged whiners who are in a conspiracy to ruin whatever system is abusing us. And when we are attacked with Jew-hatred, anti-Semitic tropes are weaponized against us to silence our complaints.

--snip--

Many white-skinned Jews insist on being recognized as people of color because when you say you’re under attack for being a Jew, it’s often not enough to warrant protection. All across the spectrum, non-Jewish people feel they have the right to tell us what is anti-Semitic. They tell us we have no license to complain. They claim to be more qualified on the subject of what is anti-Semitic and what isn’t than the people who are harmed by it. This tactic revictimizes us regularly.

We need to directly combat that. What we don’t need to do it conflate our oppression with that of people of color in the hopes that then we will be perceived as the marginalized group we are, rather than just whining white people.

--snip---

Anti-Semitism one of the most violently putrid forms of prejudice out there. We need to stand in that. We need to stand in the unique seriousness of Jewish bloodshed. We need to stand up for ourselves as ourselves. Homophobia and anti-Semitism have comparable traits, but I don’t see any heterosexual Jewish people declaring to be “non-straight” because of that.

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Is this rhetorical? I certainly have no issue with it, but there are way too many who do seem to have a problem admitting Jews are oppressed (or victims of bigotry), including other Jews!
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(Jewish Group) Can We Finally Admit That Jews Can Be Both White And Oppressed? (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Jan 2019 OP
Everyone should probably stop playing Oppression Olympics EllieBC Jan 2019 #1

EllieBC

(2,961 posts)
1. Everyone should probably stop playing Oppression Olympics
Wed Jan 9, 2019, 12:21 PM
Jan 2019

I’m not sure why we can’t talk about antisemitism without hearing “but you’re white! You are privileged! What about this other group over here????”.

It’s not a competition. There’s no gold metal.

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