Iâm not talking about my personality, per se, but my make up. Iâm a gay, Jewish Black Apache manâa minority among minorities. And todayâs political climate has been, to use the word beloved by left-wingers, âtriggering.â I know that what I am makes me less valuable, less wanted, more forgotten, than other people in this country and even this world.
I feel it with Donald Trump claiming that there are âfine peopleâ amongst neo-Nazis and Confederates who shouted âJews will not replace usâ and waved Traitor Flags (because there is nothing prideful about slavery and betrayal). I feel it among the so-called âresistanceâ of the Womenâs March, who claim to be about social justice yet attend events spearheaded by the misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan. I feel it when the religious right, which claims to be for small government, tries to take away my right to freely and openly love and marry. I feel it when international institutions that are supposedly for justice and reconciliation deny my peopleâs history, heritage, and aboriginal rights. I feel it when another young Black man is murdered by a cop and gets off, and the victim is put on trial. I feel it when tribal land being stripped away is deemed less important by the media than Trumpâs affair with a porn star. I felt it just this week on Facebook when a colleague told me I shouldnât be in my peacemaking Masters degree program because I believe that Jews, like all other people, have a right to our homeland. I feel it when Jews are consistently left out of the equation on âintersectionalityâ signs of solidarity with other oppressed groups, and when otherwise progressive people ignore or whitewash anti-Semitism when it comes from the left and from non-White people.
