What's Good - 27 June
Amsterdam Avenue, Washington Heights. Times have changed since "Baby Got Back." I rest my case.
Joe Schoss posted a really thoughtful response to Blacks & Jews, Parts One & Two. He pegs a few things that I never even thought of, including:
It occurs to me that one of the main sticking points between the folks and the tribe is the following question:
"Jewish people have it good - why are they so touchy?"
and later...
While well intentioned, these attempts often ignore the fact that racism and anti-Semitism are completely different. This is true at even at the most basic level: racism says that Black people are inferior; anti-Semitism says that Jews are evil.
and finally...
Jews are Arabs. Why can’t we just admit it?
Peep Joe here.
A good friend responded to my posts privately, saying, "I don’t think the prevailing issue is 'Jews on the brain,' so much as 'Jews in our pockets.' Sever that economic relationship and we won’t give y’all a second thought."
Yeah, well, you'd have to show me how Jews are in Black people's pockets more than white people in general. Again, I think a lot of that feeling comes from the close proximity of Jews and Blacks in media and entertainment, fields for which we both have an affinity, and fields in which white skin privalege will always give Jews an economic and political advantage.
But, you know, my whole point is that this "Jew in our pocket" thoughtform is part of the "Jew on the brain" reflex. I'm generalizing for comic effect here: Black folks don't take special note of somebody named "John Miller III" or "Kenneth Peterson" being "in their pocket." But let a Black person find out that the name's "Goldstein" or "Cohen". I've seen the reaction a hundred times, at least: "Mmm-hmm, you know how they do." But I would bet my life that there are more Millers and Peterson's in Black people's pockets than there are Feldman's and Katz's. It's just internalized anti-Jewish sentiment finding release.
-----
Oliver's discussion of Common's "Be" -- and "Be" sure to read the comments!
Also check out lovely Liz's review.
-----
The Bishop, recalling Keith LeBlanc's "No Sell Out," has his own political megamix. Peep it here. Checking my mailbox today for his book, "Lyrical Swords"
-----
Lastly, my man J. Freedom DuLac has made the big time. The Washington Post just hired him away from the Sacramento Bee to be their new pop music critic. In his first outing, my boy makes mincemeat out of an easy mark. But they deserve it.
posted by Dan Charnas at 10:54 AM
5 Comments:
Dan,
You can't take the historical proximity that Jews and Black folk have had in the media and entertainment fields as a general rule to determine how much "Jew on the Brain" Black people have in the general population. If you were talkin' about my father's generation i could see it...in my dad's community the merchants were primarily Jewish...even on the shady side of the law, the bookmakers, the moneymen, a good number were Jewish...but my response is, so what!
Your boy J. Schoss made it plain...anti-black racism and anti-Jewish sentiment are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, both in intent and intensity...so, even before i read part 3, i ask, where is this leading?
I ask this respectfully...because you can point out every instance of "Jew on the Brain" among Black folk until the cows come home; but i'll bet my car note...it won't go any farther than that!...Have Black folk ever initiated an organized pogrom against Jewish people?...at any time?...at any point in history???
if not, than what's your beef?
"Mmm-hmm, you know how they do."
LOL!!! LOL!!! LOL!!!
Awwwww damn....THAT SHIT, is funny...
OMG...
I need to go grab some water...
I love this blog...
-Adisa
Well, you know, Ronnie, I took pains to preface this whole discussion by saying excatly that: Black anti-Jewish sentiment hasn't put us in peril. I also said, as for me, "only my feelings had been hurt."
Still, I think that there are some casualties. The first among these is the truth, if you value that sort of thing. The second would be the relationship itself being damaged in perpetuity by those ongoing lies. Tell me, friend, how does it liberate Black folks to have Malik Zulu Shabazz at Howard U hopping up and down about Jews like this:
Shabazz: Who is it that caught and killed Nat Turner?
Audience: Jews!
Shabazz: Who is that controls the Federal Reserve?
Audience: Jews! (faintly)
Shabazz: What? You're not scared, are you?
Audience: Jews! Jews!
Shabazz: Who is it that controls the media and Hollywood?
Audience: Jews! Jews!
Shabazz: Who is it that has our entertainers…and our athletes in a vise grip?
Audience: Jews!
So now you got a bunch of highly educated people -- at the Grand Dame of all Black institutions of higher learning -- shouting this shit?
Goddamn, man, this isn't just about what these words do to Jews. It's also about what they do to Black people.
So it may not go any farther than, say, Black folks being two or three or four-times more likely to believe this shit than white Americans; but how do you even measure the "cost" of that? Why should you have to? Why does someone have to die to make this a thing worth talking about? I refuse to believe that Black folks can't sit down and have an honest conversation with me about this, especially since - unlike Foxman - I am not claiming that this is the end of the world.
I'm not sure I understand your first paragraph. I think folks in your father's generation had a much more visceral reason for conflict with Jews, because it was on the block, the corner and in the hood. The current kind of anti-Jewish thought occurs mostly in intellectual space. Jewish individuals are all up in the entertainment and media biz, but in no way do they form a cabal. Jewish individuals are like everyone else: a few are brave, most are afraid to lose their jobs like everyone else, greedy like everyone else. But, Ronnie, I SEE and HEAR Jews in entertainment and media get singled out based more on conjecture and suspicion than on cold hard facts; like those of two ethnic groups being in a power struggle in a place like Harlem.
The Jews control the media? You think Rick Rubin's any stingier than Russell Simmons? Think that Dick Parson's deals artists any better than Gerry Levin? Think that a white Christian CEO like Jack Welch is any less greedy than... damn, why can't I think of a Jewish CEO of a fortune 500 company? Probably because there aren;t as many as some might suspect.
But the anti-Jewish retentions ALLOW young Black kids from the block and privileged Black graduates from academia alike to think whatever suits their fancy about Jews. And for what?
I just think it's lazy, and it's lame. That's all.
Dan
P.S.: I appreciate you betting your car. You're in Cali right? That's no small wager for y'all I know. :-)
Dan,
I'm not gonna excuse that group think at Howard Univ. It is intellectually lazy at best, morally reprehensible at its worst. But what can i do? Hell, it's hard enough dealing with my own "Black Tax". If it isn't the "Bell Curve", it's bein' the face of criminality; if it isn't the public mockery of a national apology for slavery or reparations, it's "driving while Black", "shopping while Black"...hell, just bein' Black, period. For what it's worth, you've got my support, you've got my sympathy; but you're not the only cat gettin' his feelings hurt 'round here...
so now that we've vented our collective ethnic angst...now what???
and yeah, i'm in Cali (Inglewood) we take our cars seriously over here. :)
Dan,
In re-reading your previous post you asked, "Why does someone have to die to make this a thing worth talking about?" I'm thinking, Black folk were enslaved nearly 300 years w/100 years of Jim Crow right on its heels. We were brutalized, lynched, maimed, used as BREEDERS, not being allowed to read or write, etc., etc., etc.
We DIED, and America is still unwilling to deal with its treatment of us with any degree of fairness. NOBODY WANTS TO HAVE AN HONEST CONVERSATION WITH US. Nobody's interested in cryin' for Black folks. The same lament you express over anti-Jewish stereotypes is the same lament i express over me and mine; how do you measure the cost of THAT????
Post a Comment
<< Home