Iām putting this below the cut because I donāt want to make people have this conversation if theyāre not in an effective state of mind, and would prefer comments to reblogs because...tumblr.
Iāve been reading anti-racist works and otherwise engaging with antiracist media. Iāve been doing this for a while now. But now other people are reading this stuff and acknowledging its significance, so it seems like now Iām allowed to bring up race and racism without people going into auto-shutdown. If only it were for less depressing reasons. But back to that, Iāve been reading about race and racism in addition to comparative religions works, global history that they donāt teach you in school, etc. So no one think Iām an expert on any of it; just trying to get what shouldāve been in school and lifeās curriculums.
A lot of the authors and other media producers talking about race (not to mention other subjects)...donāt know how to talk about Jewish identity and experience accurately. (JoC for one, are often forgotten, but also Hitler wasnāt the first or the last, and so many other things...) And I try not to hold this against them because, frankly, itās complex and not only is it usually outside the field of these media creators who are themselves often highly specialized (got to love academia), but itās outside the topic theyāre trying to address. They are writing or speaking or commenting about some other specialized subject and this other thing the world is making them do just isnāt their job; addressing my identity or Whiteness shouldnāt be their job. At least not their job right then and there.
Iām typically looking to learn something else from them: about their own specialty or at least about that workās thesis. I donāt expect them to adequately address my identity or even White people as a general group, and I am sad that we live in a world where all these speakers, writers, thinkers always have to be addressing Whiteness on White peopleās behalf in palatable ways.
I wish we lived in a world where they didnāt all even have to address White people specifically. Iām not wishing for a world where they werenāt assuming that White people would be engaging with their work, but for a world that wouldnāt be required to molly-coddle, teach, and address White people's own Whiteness in order to make White people feel better while those White people are doing their own homework. These writers, thinkers, creators shouldnāt have to. White people should be able to read a book or listen to a podcast or read an article or watch a movie that doesnāt address how they fit in. And those points about White people, Jews not withstanding, are often one of the weaker parts of these works. Sometimes, because theyāre not the creatorās specialty, but more often because itās not the workās thesis and you can tell itās been forced in there.
But these sections and episodes or additions, as much as they pain and frustrate me, these are understandable for where we are now. What isnāt is tumblr posts critiquing the existence of books and articles written by (or not by) and for White people -- but endorsed by activists and academics of color -- that grapple with Whiteness. Because, clearly enough, White people engaging with other anti-racist works need opportunities to explore their Whiteness, and Iād rather that they seek it out independently rather than creating a world where what feels like every anti-racist thinker has to make space in every work to cater to guilt-ridden, clueless White people. Selfishly, Iād also rather not see these writers fumble about my own identity, and other identities that donāt fit neatly into Americaās black-white paradigm (e.g. pale Hispanic-Americans, the whole spectrum of Asian-American experience, Indigenous people, Arab-Americans). Iād like to take them more seriously than these forced extensions and formalized footnotes (created with a societal gun held to their heads?) are letting me.
Anyways, if anyone would like to hear about the works or sections of works Iāve found helped my learning, hmu over messaging and/or I can try to make some posts.
