Ashkenormative Privilege and Black Citizen Erasure – Let’s Talk!

This is a difficult conversation to have, I know. But, now, more than ever, we need to be having it as an ethno-religious people! What am I talking about, you might be asking?

Jews are often the worst black allies, because we are too often too damn ethnocentric – too damn Jew-centric – to be *real* allies for black citizens of this nation. As a Jew, I am ashamed of this Jewish reality! Hence, why I call a spade a spade, unapologetically, everytime I post. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

I am hoping to help us as a Jewish people and, especially Jews influenced by Ashkenormativism, to understand something critically important here at this time in United States history:

When you focus *only* on black Jews during Black History Month on a progressive Jewish discussion group, you are as a black church would say, “preaching to the choir!” Put those posts onto the religious Jewish FB pages! Show them the faces of actual legitimate black (and brown) Jews in this nation (and around the world!).

Goodness, if Ashkenormativism isn’t the thang in the USA. But, on progressive Jewish FB groups, we need to go hardcore black ally during BHM! And, we can save the Jewish identity for another time, no?! Say like, black Jews represent the other eleven months of the year?! Last I checked, one never loses their black or their Jewish identity.

Black Jews are just as vulnerable to the racism of this white society as every black citizen living in the USA. Therefore, logic concludes, ending racism against blacks (period!) is the focus we need to adopt! It’s not just about representation, but about structural change to ensure this equal representation.

As someone with black children from my loins, I understand this. Oh, and they’re also Jewish (duh!) by default of who is Dad! … The point of this post is to say that limiting Black History Month posts on Jewish pages and in Jewish discussion groups to only “black Jews” is a form of white Jewish *erasure* of the real societal problem at hand: white systemic structural racism that is oppressing and killing innocent black citizens (Jewish or not!).

How dare I encourage Jews to be *real* allies at this time in history?! While legislation can actually be enacted and signed by our federal government! Jews, please, don’t be #PartOfTheProblem ! #BLM before Jewish lives in the USA!!! Plain and simple!!!

It is the privilege of whites – people with white skin – to be individuals first, a tribe/nation second, and a historically brutal self-entitled colonizer third. Just being able to present as white in this nation bestows these blessings upon you for life. But, any black person – Jew or not – is always black first. And by black first, I mean judged at first sight based on: the hateful stereotypes about blacks, or on this ignorant erasure concept called colorblindness within liberal white society.

Now, back to us Jews! Jews have an inherent cultural nature of being ethnocentric. It has to be all about us, about our Jewishness – else wise, we hesitate or resist engagement.

For example, the white young Jewish woman videotaping in the store, while she provokes anger from a black woman – just so she can go online after and complain about her mistreatment as a Jew. Let me tell you something, that black woman saw an entitled white woman who would not stop provoking her for a reaction, she didn’t see a Jew!

For example, the legal “brains” of the Southern Confederacy which a Civil War was fought over was a white presenting Jew. He was not only the Attorney General of the newly formed nation of Confedrate States, he was also their War Secretary, and one of their Senators. Do you know his name?

We Jews need to start being *real* allies for a change, not occassional ones like we have historically been (a few Jewish leaders marching with MLK for Civil Rights, helping start the NAACP with Jewish resources, etc.). Too many Jews have been on the wrong side of history in the USA, actively and/or through indifference (Ashkenormativity). The religious Jews alone are not solely at fault for this racism, it is more prevalent than believed even in secular and humanistic Jewish communities where inherent Ashkenormativism is the norm.

To be a “true ally” of black and brown Jews requires all Jewish communities to stand for anti-racist structural changes to U.S. society *now*, while we have this very real chance to influence societal change! Jewish communities are truly black allies only when we focus on black history during BHM, and on black Jewish history every other month of the year.

Just saying, that we need to stop censoring and stop conditioning on this too important social issue. We need to have the discussion, unfiltered. Let black folk in our communities teach us what we can further do – as Jews in the United States of America!

With this said, allow me to now pass the mike of expression to Isaac Ofori-Solomon, an Ethiopian Jew, so we can hear this subject from his expression, now, please. His words are important and informative!

Isaac Ofori-Solomon writes: “I’ve complained alongside my Moroccan, Yemeni, and Persian friends countless times about the different microaggressions and plain ignorance of our fellow Jews and non-Jews alike….

For a lot of people, the idea of “Jew” equals “white,” and that leads to a range of annoying to downright insulting encounters while navigating the spaces where we should feel we belong….

If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked me wildly inappropriate questions like, “When did you convert?” or, “Are you adopted?” I would probably have enough money to pay for my undergraduate without relying on FAFSA….

In America, many of us are faced with … terms like “shvartze,” the Yiddish word for black that is considered a slur against Black people, whispered while meeting a friend’s extended family. Your mother is harassed by a random security guard as she picks you up from working Sunday school at the J.C.C. The police harass you following a cousin’s bar mitzvah.

These are just some of the forms of harassment that I and my loved ones [black Jews] have experienced in spaces where all Jews are supposed to be able to safely congregate. More often than not, members of our communities are put in precarious positions in regards to dealing with bigotry that presents itself in spaces meant to [be] for all Jews….

Historically, there has also been a bad habit of the Ashkenazim attempting to triumph their own traditions as greater or more authentic, leading to times when Ethiopian and Indian Jews have been pressured to “convert” as if they weren’t already Jewish.

Even the very way we define Zionism needs to change. Theodor Herzl, the Austrian Jew largely credited as “the father of political Zionism,” was an assimilationist….

The issue at the heart of the Zionism that dominates our culture is that the person who we are so quick to give credit to left out a huge portion of our people and didn’t intend on ever including us.”

Ashkenormativity Is a Threat to All Jewish Communities
https://www.heyalma.com/ashkenormativity-is-a-threat-to-all-jewish-communities/

Ethiopian Jews like myself have faced racism from within the Jewish community for far too long.
By Isaac Ofori-Solomon
June 17, 2020