There are many valid critiques of Israel, the way Israel was founded, and Zionism itself. But “Jews are European colonizers who are really from Poland and Russia,” isn’t one of them, for four reasons:
– Roughly half of Israeli Jews aren’t even European, at all. They’re Levantine, Persian, Iraqi, Indian, North African, Ethiopian, etc.
– You can’t be a colonizer if your “colony” doesn’t have a mother country.
– Ashkenazim did spend 1000 years in Eastern/Central Europe, but we were never really considered European. In fact, we consistently faced discrimination and violence *because* we were seen as foreigners from the Middle East. By saying we’re “really European” you are foisting on us the identity of our oppressors.
– Ethnic Ashkenazim are not genetically Eastern/Central European. Roughly half of our DNA is from the Levant (the area where Israel and Palestine are) and the other half is from Southern Europe (like, Northern Italy). We have next to no Eastern/Central European admixture.
You can’t assign us an ethnicity just because you don’t like us. You can’t rewrite history or ignore science just because you don’t like us.
I’m so tired. I’m just weary to my bone marrow. Shaun King on Twitter lecturing Jews about what is and is not antisemitism. The Women’s March and that LGBTQ march in Chicago. I’m just…I’m just tired.
SAME
What did Shaun King say?
He is repeatedly telling Jewish people they’re wrong for finding Tamika Mallory’s “enemies of Jesus” tweet offensive, because it’s apparently a commonly used phrase in certain Christian circles, especially within the Black community.
And like…that may be, but in context of the situation (i.e. her praising of Farrakhan at an event where he unleashed anti-Semitic vitriol, and subsequent refusal to denounce him), it’s still a faux pas?
Like, you can’t refuse to retract your support for somebody who just gave a speech about the how “the Satanic Jews” are their enemy and then talk about the situation using a phrase about “enemies of Jesus,” without it being a bad look. Full stop.
Like, sometimes things aren’t inherently bad on their own, but within a specific context, they can become offensive, and the people who didn’t think that process through still need to apologise even if it wasn’t their intention.
For example, H&M got blasted recently for a cringeworthy ad which showed a Black child model wearing a shirt that said “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle.” Now, as it turned out, the boy had modelled at least a dozen different shirts with different slogans for H&M, and this just happened to be one of the many they had in their collection. BUT—when people see this one, solitary ad on its own, out of context from all the different wardrobe options, IT’S A BAD LOOK AND IT’S OFFENSIVE, and H&M should have fucking known better than to choose that image of all the ones they had taken to be the one they featured. Just because he modelled a lot of different shirts doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have had the foresight to know that particular image could and would be perceived as offensive in a solitary context.
Tamika Mallory may have been using a phrase that’s common within her community, but given that she’s using it to discuss a situation where she won’t apologise for stanning an anti-Semite who just called Jews the devil, IT’S STILL A BAD LOOK and as somebody who is meant to be an activist she should have known better.
The fact that Shaun King refuses to acknowledge how the context matters and how she should have had the foresight to know that was poor choice of words within this particular one, to the point where he is repeatedly telling Jewish people they’re wrong for being offended, is really fucking troubling.
this just in, Shaun King is once again a trash fire
no one is surprised
(he blocked one of my indigenous activist friends after James told him to basically go get fucked after Shaun did exactly the same thing wrt indigenous issued that he’s now doing with Jewish issues: telling people of a group he’s not a part of how they should feel. so basically I lost all patience with Shaun King then, and I’m not surprised now that he’s doubling and tripling down on this shit.)
It’s become increasingly clear to me that the liberal concept of “resistance” is designed specifically to declaw any possible opposition to the will of the ruling class. You can tell by the way they use vague hyperboles all the time – insisting they’re going to “fight” or “resist” – when what they really mean is “politely ask our masters not to take our basic rights away.” Seriously, signing petitions accomplishes absolutely nothing except for making you feel like you’ve done something when you haven’t. If your march is sanctioned by the police, it’s not a protest, it’s a parade. Please, think about if for two seconds – what makes you believe the state will respond to what essentially amounts to begging without you giving them any real incentive to actually listen? If you claim want things to change, but you’re opposed to anyone actually doing anything to make that happen, it’s about time you question where your true loyalties lie.
There is real antisemitism on both the right and the left. It matters on both the right and the left. Using the other side’s antisemitism as a gotcha not only fails to fight antisemitism, it allows it to expand in your own backyard, unfought and ignored. Demanding that Jews shut up to join up a movement and not fight for our own lives, safety and dignity is an antisemitic and oppressive act in and of itself. Never forget that antisemitism is an ancient hatred, deeply ingrained in many cultures with a documented body count in the millions.
I’m tired of people arguing over whether Farrakhan’s or Steve Bannon’s antisemitism is worse. Neither is acceptable. Both must be visibly stamped out, and we can’t do it on our own, especially when our “allies” are busy shouting “look over there!” when we tell people to stop demonizing us and promoting our demonizers. Enough is enough.
did you guys know that the robot genre of science fiction sprung up as a critique of the way in which industrialization reduced workers to taking up monotonous, unskilled factory jobs in order to earn profit, jobs which in turn alienated them from their own humanity? did you know that the theory of the alienation of the self under capitalistic mode of production is a core principle of marxism? did you know that robot itself comes from a czech playwright who, for a science fiction play, coined the word as a derivative of the czech term robota, meaning forced labor? did you know that the robot genre is rooted in anti-capitalist sentiment?
She said she didn’t like the sound of my lungs AT ALL and that I need to rest and “push fluids.” She also prescribed me antibiotics. Bronchitis pretty much confirmed.
Death By Catchphrase 