tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744114065733119575.post860983311985771366..comments2024-03-13T11:14:26.768-04:00Comments on A Radical Profeminist: Seinfeld: A Television Show About Something Really DangerousUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744114065733119575.post-14435318240438852322009-03-13T12:13:00.000-04:002009-03-13T12:13:00.000-04:00Hello and welcome, DVY!YES! From the change in our...Hello and welcome, DVY!<BR/><BR/>YES! From the change in our last names, whether upon arrival here, or done by ourselves to not be so noticeable, to celebrating <I>Amerikkkan holidays</I> like Thanksgiving and Christmas, to the shameless support of white male supremacist actions globally, we Jews are made to invisibilise ourselves here, to blend in with the ones that <I>didn't</I> kill Christ. (That's being written with the greatest amount of sarcasm possible.)<BR/><BR/>I sometimes call it "white heterosexual male Christian supremacy" but I like your phrasing very much, as long as gender and sexuality oppression, among others, don't get left out of the meaning of "White Christian Terrorism". <BR/><BR/>In subtle and overt ways the white nuclear family, heterosexism, colonialism, Western cultural imperialism, rape, slavery, marriage-as-an-institution, white supremacy, globalisation, genocide, ecocide, and various other misopedic and misogynist atrocities are all part of each other, indivisible, under a Christian white heterosexual male supremacist sky-god, who presides <I>over</I> the Earth and preaches the holiness of men's matrimony with women while also proclaiming women to be worthy of contempt, degradation, and subordination by those very same men, and any other men that care to jump in. (Such an odd and inhumane fellow, that Christian white sky-god who has no Earthly dirt under his pristinely manicured fingernails.)<BR/><BR/>I use the letters ECD after the Christian calendar years listed here, meaning the "Era of Christian Domination".<BR/><BR/>Have you read <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Yurugu-African-Centered-Critique-European-Cultural/dp/0865432481" REL="nofollow"><I>Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior</I></A> by Marimba Ani, the work of Andrea Smith, especially <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Sexual-Violence-American-Genocide/dp/0896087433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236956065&sr=1-1" REL="nofollow"><I>Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide</I></A>, as well as <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Scapegoat-Jews-Israel-Womens-Liberation/dp/0743242564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236956120&sr=1-1" REL="nofollow"><I>Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation</I></A>? If so, let's "discuss". If you haven't as yet, you'll find yourself nodding a lot and hopefully gaining new insights. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for the reading recommendations and links. I was familiar with one of them but not the others, and I appreciate you bringing them to my attention.<BR/><BR/>You wrote:<BR/><I>People of color have told white activists for years that it seems that it is so much easier for white activists--for us--to see issues across the globe and cry out against them than it is to look at issues under our very feet--the land we "own"/live on--or across the street or across town or downtown.</I><BR/><BR/>Indeed! U.S. and other Western white activists make it a perennial practice to speak out against atrocities beyond our shores murderously pretending those human rights crimes are completely unrelated to what we white Western men do, globally. Making it a routine practice to focus one's political agenda on those evil, bad, dangerous dark-skinned men (or women, or children, or African bees from Mexico, or a deadly virus from East Asia on its way over here, bee-lining it to North America, as we speak) over there on some other continent, is a most convenient way to ignore white Westerners' complicity with the on-going genocide on <I>this</I> land, currently. These same activists--and also the population of <I>passivists</I>--seem to not to want to deal substantively, through organised unrelenting militant activism, with what being Western and white means and does. To focus away from <I>that</I> inconvenient truth makes "us" seem to be much more morally pure and allows us white men to sound off with grandiose self-unawareness. <BR/><BR/><B>It is so blasted racist/white supremacist/Western imperialistic</B> for U.S. whites--men and women--to criticise <I>those</I> people of color <I>over there</I> for how <B>THEY</B> treat other men, women, the Earth, children, animals, etc. (But let's not talk about where the guns and other mean and methods of mass destruction come from that flow into areas, here and abroad, that are continually destabilised by us. (What?! Munitions used in "the Mexican drug wars" are supplied by white folks in the U.S., and mostly come down through California??? Scalping came from British and Dutch conquerors??? La, la, la; I don't want to know.) <BR/><BR/>Knowing all that would make us, well, culpable, with both old and fresh blood dripping from our outwardly and accusingly pointed fingers. Having that awareness might take some of the dignity out of our self-righteousness, willfully ignorant indignation. (A golden rule for oppressors: always better to keep away from the mirrors, unless all one sees there is one's own cloistered version of oneself.)<BR/><BR/>Do you have a blog? I'll link to it if you do. I am in complete agreement with you, down to the dotted i's and crossed t's, especially the "big crossed T" that an Indigenous Jewish man named Jesus allegedly didn't quite die on. <BR/><BR/>You'll find plenty of support for your points elsewhere here on this blog, in other posts including <A HREF="http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2008/11/indigenous-feminist-voices-heard-here.html" REL="nofollow">this one</A>. <BR/><BR/>I am filled with gratitude to know there are others out there who experience and interpret the world similarly. This is all to say: <BR/><BR/>Thanks so much for showing up. And don't be a stranger!!<BR/><BR/>What can I get you to drink?Julian Realhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02933612851144914687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744114065733119575.post-82342912750390422212009-03-12T15:20:00.000-04:002009-03-12T15:20:00.000-04:00Julian,Related to the issue of "Jewishness in the ...Julian,<BR/><BR/>Related to the issue of "Jewishness in the U.S., of Jews and whiteness, of non-white Jews being invisibilised in Ashkenazic Jewish-white environments and in Christian communities" ...<BR/><BR/>would you agree that there is pressure by white Christians on white Jews to "invisiblise" Jews of color as wells as to invisiblize white Jews own Jewishness?<BR/><BR/>This continent was colonized and eventually became the "U.S." via White Christian terrorism. Making this statement does not preclude that other forms of terrorism exist. It simply acknowleges a form of terrorism on this continent that is not typically acknowledged. <BR/><BR/>American Indians did not cross the Atlantic and colonize Europe, spreading small pox deliberately and decimating the food supply of the people resulting in the death of millions, forcibly removing European children from their family's "savage influence" and enrolling them into residential schools wherein the children were forbidden from speaking their own indigenous European languages and face torture for doing so while imposing the language, culture and life ways of American Indians upon them. If this were the case, I would not hesitate in calling that process American Indian terrorism in Europe. (See The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Residential School Experience in Canada for an example of the reality of Christian Terrorism North of the United States.)<BR/><BR/>Acknowledging the existence of Jews of color also has an impact on the consciousness of white activists against white supremacy on this continent who do not acknowledge the role that white Christian terrorism played and still plays on this continent. (See for instance the urging to burn/revoke Papal Bulls: http://intercontinentalcry.org/tag/papal-bull/ )<BR/><BR/>Similar to the process of people of color internalizing white supremacy, non-Christians--e.g., Jews--living in a culture created by white male christian supremacy internalize christian supremacy with the result being seen for example in anti-semitic jokes told by Jews themselves in order to gain acceptance by white Christian peers who don't want to acknowlege their role in sustaining terrorism on this continent. (The consumption of white supremacist and anti-Semitic porn being an example).<BR/><BR/>People of color have told white activists for years that it seems that it is so much easier for white activists--for us--to see issues across the globe and cry out against them than it is to look at issues under our very feet--the land we "own"/live on--or across the street or across town or downtown. <BR/><BR/>Acknowledging the existence of Jews of color would bring up the point that Jews are indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa and the struggles in The Middle East are struggles between and among indigenous peoples experiencing, often, similar pressures--pressures of both White and Christian supremacy. There is plenty of Male Supremacy already in the Middle East including in movements supported by white activists against the supposed "colonization" by Jews in the Middle East. Certainly, Jews of color could not be accused of colonizing the Middle East. I think that the guilt of white Christian activists in North America is projected onto Jews in the Middle East and in this process of projection, white Christians erase and pressure light skinned Jews to erase the existence of Jews who are darker skinned. Jews of darker skin--including Mizrahi, Sephardic (Seinfeld is, as was already noted, mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardi)and Ethiopian Jews have voiced opposition to Ashkenazi Jews acting as though if someone isn't Ashkenazi, s/he isn't an authentic Jew. (For example, of Ethiopian/Black Jews, see <BR/>http://thecommandmentkeepers.net/crew.htm )Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744114065733119575.post-16702128958632733582009-03-12T13:17:00.000-04:002009-03-12T13:17:00.000-04:00Hi yrl.I apologise to the readers, and to Jerry, f...Hi yrl.<BR/><BR/>I apologise to the readers, and to Jerry, for that lack of awareness.<BR/><BR/>Thank you very much for clarifying his ethnic heritage: you're the first person to bring that to my attention! (Not that I couldn't have found this out on my own!)<BR/><BR/>I've been thinking more about this matter of Jewishness in the U.S., of Jews and whiteness, of non-white Jews being invisibilised in Ashkenazic Jewish-white environments and in Christian communities, and have posted about it not too long ago.<BR/><BR/>Your comment helps remind me to link to that post from the one about Seinfeld, which I'll do <A HREF="http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2009/02/on-being-white-jew-in-racistmisogynist.html" REL="nofollow"> here</A>.<BR/><BR/>Shalom.Julian Realhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02933612851144914687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744114065733119575.post-78409919790446295172009-03-11T01:50:00.000-04:002009-03-11T01:50:00.000-04:00Thanks for the post.Small critique: you call Jerry...Thanks for the post.<BR/><BR/>Small critique: you call Jerry Seinfeld "ashkenazic" but he's actually mixed ashkenazi/sephardi. Also many Jews ARE of african descent, and/or indigenous. Qualifying that, I do think most of what you say about whiteness holds true, though.<BR/><BR/><I>Jews, of whatever race, ought to stand with any oppressed group, opposing white male supremacy in any form.</I><BR/><BR/>yes.yrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14073277516719572903noreply@blogger.com