I very much had the "Anti-Semitism is over, it's not as bad as other oppressions, Jews are white and so shouldn't be complaining," thing very firmly in my head.
For me it feels like a kind of cognitive dissonance. I didn't believe it. (Less active anti-Semitism in this country than other forms of racism, yes. Zero anti-Semitism, do I look like I'm stupid? I got called a kike and a big-nosed bitch in high school in a town with a high enough Jewish population to support two synagogues, though I only ever interacted with the one where the community youth theater met. Ditto the part about Jews being white. I understood that Jews of the right ethnicity could pass for white and/or share in its benefits—I understood, once I knew the term, that I had white privilege working in my favor in any social situation that didn't fracture along lines of my religion/ethnicity—but actual factual unrevocable whiteness was a unique privilege of non-Jews.) But I was still convinced that if I voiced my disbelief, everyone would pile in telling me I was wrong. Even with all the recent and blatant fuckery. Even telling myself that my friendlist was not composed of terrible people. And that's why it feels like background radiation, because I can't trace it to any single origin, but I still got sick.
And since the only kind of Anti-Semitism I've had pointed at me was microaggressions, ("Oh, the Jews are a really ancient and beautiful people!" said my Wisconsin Catholic step-mother's best friend, to which 16-year-old me responded with a confused, "Uh... thank you?")
To be fair, it's a confusing thing for a person to say.
Until this year. When it's clearly really, really not. And therefore, presumably, hasn't been for years.
In the time it took me to answer this comment, the man who currently occupies the president's office declared recent incidents of anti-Semitism false flags. Those Jews, always desecrating their own graves. Crazy, right?
no subject
For me it feels like a kind of cognitive dissonance. I didn't believe it. (Less active anti-Semitism in this country than other forms of racism, yes. Zero anti-Semitism, do I look like I'm stupid? I got called a kike and a big-nosed bitch in high school in a town with a high enough Jewish population to support two synagogues, though I only ever interacted with the one where the community youth theater met. Ditto the part about Jews being white. I understood that Jews of the right ethnicity could pass for white and/or share in its benefits—I understood, once I knew the term, that I had white privilege working in my favor in any social situation that didn't fracture along lines of my religion/ethnicity—but actual factual unrevocable whiteness was a unique privilege of non-Jews.) But I was still convinced that if I voiced my disbelief, everyone would pile in telling me I was wrong. Even with all the recent and blatant fuckery. Even telling myself that my friendlist was not composed of terrible people. And that's why it feels like background radiation, because I can't trace it to any single origin, but I still got sick.
And since the only kind of Anti-Semitism I've had pointed at me was microaggressions, ("Oh, the Jews are a really ancient and beautiful people!" said my Wisconsin Catholic step-mother's best friend, to which 16-year-old me responded with a confused, "Uh... thank you?")
To be fair, it's a confusing thing for a person to say.
Until this year. When it's clearly really, really not. And therefore, presumably, hasn't been for years.
In the time it took me to answer this comment, the man who currently occupies the president's office declared recent incidents of anti-Semitism false flags. Those Jews, always desecrating their own graves. Crazy, right?
Sigh. *hugs*
Thank you.
*hugs*
[edit] It seems this is a popular feeling right now.