Personally, the concept of race to me has always been based on a scientific perspective, and because of that, I have always believed that race is due to a gene line. Therefore I do not necessarily agree that a type of religion should be considered a race. However, for this piece, I will go ahead and consider it a race while keeping my own thoughts and feelings about it.
Throughout the article many of my own views were challenged, and I have to say, I disagreed with many aspects of it, and am partially disappointed with the piece in general. Besides claiming that Judaism is a race, I disagree with the claims that everyone hates Jews, that they are seen as “different,” and that they have to fear being who they are. I will now embrace each of these aspects and go into more detail with them. I will begin each section with a few quotes that I believe are interrelated, and then analyze them.
“In the U.S., Christian, like white, is an unmarked category in need of marking.”
“As racism names the system that normalises, honors and rewards whiteness.”
“World Jewish Congress in 1958”
“Jews for Racial and Economic Justice”
I dislike the way that people criticize white people because they believe that they are judging them. I also disagree with how they believe that since they are a ‘minority’ that they should have special circumstances. There is no such thing as the World White Congress, or the Whites for Racial and Economic Justice, so why should different minorities have such gatherings? Nowadays we have Black Entertainment Television and other programs directed towards specific races, however, there is not a White Entertainment Television station. Just because a group of people are considered a minority does not mean that they should be able to exclude others from their groups. Currently there are so many programs to try and get underprivileged and minorities involved into things such as college, as with the numerous scholarships aimed towards different ethnicities, but have you ever heard of a scholarship aimed at a white person? I just believe that even if one is a minority, they shouldn’t be able to exclude others because they are fighting for equality and equality does not include exclusion of others.
“When everyone… hates Jews?”
“Process of ‘whitening’”
“Many of us have lost our culture, our sense of community.”
“Own brand of Jewish courage.”When it comes to maintaining your roots if you will, I think it is a personal responsibility to keep what is important to you as a part of your life. No one can force you to change your religious beliefs if you truly believe. However, many claim to have changed their opinions to better fit in to society. On the other hand, if something is that valuable to an individual, they should fight harder to keep it. The concept of being human is to form one’s own views, morals, and belief systems, for without that, we would not be human. We all are capable of thinking, of processing, of growing, and because of this we develop our character. If Judaism is as important as they claim, then they should not be ashamed of what they are, and instead, they should embrace it. They should have their “own brand of Jewish courage,” because without courage, nothing can be achieved. We all face difficult situations in life, and it is our courage that helps get us through them. People without courage only have fear, and fear can, and will, stop everything in its path.
Hasidim: “Tend to protect their individual communities.”
Hasidim: “They dare to walk around looking Jewish.”
This group of people represents the greatest devotion of people within the chapter of text. They know what they believe in, and they stand by it proudly. Rather than running in the other direction, or molding in order to fit in with society, they embrace their values and make it be known. If every Jewish person lived with this optimism, they would not have so much fear in their lives.
Lastly, this article generalizes the entire white population, portraying the idea that all whites think alike. But this is gravely untrue. Many whites are not racist, are not bigots, and are not trying to impose on minorities. In actuality, many embrace minorities with open arms, listen to their complaints, and try to relieve the issues that are present. It is not fair to claim that every white person feels the same way because we are all from different racial backgrounds, have different past experiences, and therefore have different views. I actually believe that it is only a small portion of the white population that has an issue with minorities, while the rest see everyone as equal.
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The reason why there isn’t a “Whites for Racial and Economic Justice” or a “World White Congress”, is because white people aren’t commonly being oppressed. In our country, white people are the majority and the majority has the advantage and though most white people aren’t consciously stepping on and discriminating against these groups of people it is also true most white people aren’t actively trying to stop them from being stepped on or pushed down. I agree with you in that I think there are a lot of people who see everyone as equals, but I don’t think that it’s only a small portion of people. It’s not just white people who are prejudice, every group of people can be prejudice in one way or another, but that prejudice is prevalent and that’s why these groups form. Maybe it’s not as common or outwardly and actively prejudice in our area, but it exists.
ReplyDeleteThese groups are made to prevent discrimination when it is there. It doesn’t mean there is always this big group of whities discriminating on minorities. It just means when there is some racism or some form of prejudice going on, it is being fought against. If the people being attacked for who they are don’t defend themselves who will? Are they supposed to just wait for majority to see it? Most of the time the majority doesn’t see it unless the minority brings it up because to the majority, it doesn’t concern them or maybe like you say they are accepting and just don’t realize the hate coming from those who don’t.
These groups aren’t out there to give these minorities special rights or special advantages, they are trying to create equality. Equality doesn’t mean that every group of people have a group fighting against the discrimination of them, equality means eventually not needing those groups at all because they aren’t being discriminated or oppressed. White people don’t need these group because they are at an advantage and generally aren’t discriminated against. It’s like when a white heterosexual man complains about feminism or black pride or gay pride days (not saying that all do). They want to feel special by having their own day but then they don’t realize that the day isn’t about feeling special, it’s about trying to gain equality and the mutual respect of other human beings.
Now obviously not all minorities treat these days as such. And some take advantage of the systems to gain special rights, but that’s not what most are looking for. For instance, I don’t go to Gay Pride events for attention, I go there for the right to be myself and to gain eventually the equality I think my sexuality deserves. It’s not all glitter and rainbows, it political awareness, networking and action, but that’s not what the media covers or what most straight people see. It’s always just the especially attention grabbing flamboyant ones that get people riled up and offended. And that doesn’t’ mean they should stop, because their being themselves and like I said that’s part of the point. It’s just people need to look at the whole picture not just the bright and shiny part which seems to make them ironically jealous of minorities having to form groups, parades and days to fight to be treated equally as humans.
These kind of groups aren’t there to exclude the majority, their trying to spread awareness to and fight the ignorance of the part of the majorities that are prejudice. They aren’t looking for people to put them up on a pedestal and grapple at their feet, they are just looking for those who do believe in equality, to be active and be allies. They WANT members of the majority to join and be part of their groups, not to exclude them from the groups. That doesn’t mean you have to go march with them or campaign for action either, it’s just the small things that are nice. Like calling a friend out when they say an offensive term, or defending a group of people when someone stereotypes them negatively.
As for Television programs for minority groups excluding majorities, I don’t see a problem. There are way more channels that are mostly white with a few minority characters then there are mostly minorities. I don’t see how one channel like BET that is mostly black or LOGO that is mostly homosexual does any harm. It’s just the reverse of the majority of channels, instead of a bunch a white people with a token minority here or there, it’s a bunch of black people with a few white people here or there. If white people can have mostly white channels then why can black people do the same? If straight people can have mostly straight channels than why can’t gay people do the same?
When it comes to college, I don’t think that colleges should be looking at getting a certain minority percentage, I think it should be just based of grades and community involvement and such. When it comes to scholarships there are a lot of general scholarships out there when it comes to race, and its up to the people with money to decide who they give it to so its their prerogative. I mean, with the amount of white people who complain about not having white specific scholarships, you’d think they could get enough donors to put one together. A lot of minority groups put these scholarships together because they come from a group of people that don’t often see college as an option and want to help people out that are in the same situation they were. Like for instance scholarships target towards homosexuals, there a lot of teens that don’t have the support of their families when they come out. I don’t know if any of the race based scholarships do this but the Pride scholarships actually accept homosexual applicants as well as supportive heterosexual applicants.
I know there a lot of under privileged white kids who need help with college and there are scholarships out there for poor people in general. But another way to look at it is that some of these minorities coming from tough lives applying to these scholarships might not always get the equal treatment they should because of prejudices of the people who review applications. That doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a poor white scholarship, hell maybe there should be, sometimes it feels like poor white people are forgotten about or are assumed to be well off because they are white. But, for example, if a gay teen writes in his application about getting kicked out of his home for his sexuality, not every reader is going to be sympathetic, and with a scholarship directed towards homosexuals they have a better chance in getting support for college. That’s part of why minority specific scholarships exist.
I know I just responded to a small part of your blog, but it’s the part that got me thinking and feeling like I should say something. I know I kind of got carried away in this response, hopefully you don’t feel like I’m attacking you.
I understand your frustration with the broad categorizations that are drawn about certain groups. Still, I think it is often challenging to step outside of the comfortable notion that the "other" is one type of person and we are another. I think it is impossible to every truly understand what it is like to be othered. We never have to look inward and think of ourselves as one certain race, while other groups are forced to do this on a regular basis because they are termed minority. You mentioned that it is unfair that certain groups receive special attention or financial help based on their race. Personally, I would say that I disagree. I think it is one step in the direction towards looking inward at ourselves and realizing that we are steeped in privilege and comfort. This is a very thoughtful blog. Thanks,
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