Monday, November 27, 2023

Not scared.


     One of the most fascinating aspects of my several conversations with 107-year-0ld Black Chicagoan Edith Renfrow Smith was related to her recollections of the Civil Rights era.  While the typical — almost inevitable — stance of people alive during that troubled time is to puff up whatever relationship they had to the great struggle, she was 180 degrees opposite: it didn't affect her. Not her concern. I was dubious, almost incredulous, and pressed her on the matter — c'mon, you said you couldn't shop at Marshall Field's. What about that? 
     “I don’t want to go there anyway,” she said defiantly. “They don’t have anything I want."
    She had decided that these issues didn't affect her. And that was it. She was going to live her life as a full person as good as anybody else — "Nobody's better than you" — and if others chose to think differently, that was their problem, not hers. 
     My personal take on being Jewish in America is something similar. It isn't that anti-Semitism doesn't exists, or isn't spiking in reaction to the war in Gaza. I see that. It's just that, personally, it doesn't touch me. Maybe I'm oblivious. Or just lucky. The anti-Jew mob, with their torches and nooses, was going east on Monroe when I was walking, hands in pockets, whistling west down Madison, admiring the buildings.
     Part of it was growing up only a couple decades after the end of World War II. At times, it seemed like the whole religion was about the Holocaust. A sort of death cult. Judaism was Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto with pauses to light candles and spin dreidels. I hated that. It felt suffocating.
    The reality has to be more complicated than that. Maybe because, when I meet anti-Semites, I immediately discount them, because their scorn is coming from a hater. Consider the source. It isn't about me, it's pus from a wound. Their wound, not mine. Nobody is a hater because they're so brave, and Jews are the oldest, largest, easiest target in the world. That collegiate Americans would decide to sign on to Team Anti-Semite is sad, but also typical, the familiar blend of enthusiasm and ignorance that so defines the young.
     Now that I think of it, I get anti-Semitic screeds almost every day — gathering unread in my spam filter, waiting to be flushed away.  Most aren't even read. Flushed away with the rest of the shit. If I do happen to notice one, they seem more mentally ill than anything else. Who cares why a mentally ill person you never met decides to fixate on something? If the source of that fixation happens to be me — what are my responsibilities toward that person? None. I'm not a doctor. 
     Why let the poison in? Why be any more conscious of their presence than you have to? You can't make them go away, or change. People in marginalized groups have the distressing tendency — and I think this is really what Edith Renfrow Smith is pushing back against — of acting like they're auditioning for the people who despise them. I'll get notes from Jewish readers ponderously chiding me for this or that opinion because they feel that it makes the Jews look bad in the eyes of anti-Semites, as if the haters are coolly evaluating us, and forming conclusions based on our behavior. When in reality they start out by hating us and cherry pick facts they feel shore up that hate. This isn't a contest. 
     Israel's actions in the war in Gaza are just an update on the Jews killing Christ. The bad thing that Jews did that permits them to be locked in their synagogue before it is set it on fire. That rationale, the specific bad thing Jews did changes, but it is always there, and always will be. If the creation of Israel — the naqba — was such a shock, then what did the Jews do wrong in 1947 and 1946 and 1945 and 1944 and 1943 and 1942 and 1941 and 1940, what was our crime then that so agitated so many people against them? Oh right nothing. Mere existence. Their original sin. Our original sin. We're heeeeeeeeere! 
     The photo above was taken in September in the tiny Jewish quarter in Amsterdam, now a tourist site.  I was taken aback — somewhere between surprised and aghast — to see they'd put up a big yellow Magen David in the middle of the street, the way the Puerto Rican stretch of Division Street in Humboldt Park is marked by a stylized PR flag. 
     The yellow star? Really? Maybe it's unintentional. Historical. Maybe it's trying to take control of the touchstone used against you, the way gays repurposed "queer." Maybe there's some other cultural factor at work I don't understand. But I found it ... confusing, at best. The Germans used this exact device to single us out for abuse ... and now we embrace it. Okay then. How's that workin' for you?
      Maybe that's my approach. I don't embrace anti-Semitism, I register that it's there, intellectually, then step around it, like a turd on the sidewalk. The less I think about that shit, the happier I am. I suppose I could be afraid — people obviously are afraid. I see that — and I don't want to discount their fear. It's awful to be frightened. But that's also what the haters want. Not being afraid, not even caring, seems the best revenge. 



17 comments:

  1. I take the same sort of approach with people that I know who support trump and the general philosophy that he and his supporters espouse. A great descriptor “step around it, like a turd on the sidewalk.” Just as with anti-semites, other hate groups or trumpers there is no reasoning or explaining that will change their minds or at the minimum get them to see the other side. There’s just no use in trying.
    And the yellow star in the photo? There is a level of tone deafness there that boggles the mind.

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  2. That's probably a good defense mechanism or it could drive one batty.

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  3. Perhaps the star is there, in the photo, as a symbol of defiance! Wasn't it in Denmark that everyone started wearing the yellow stars once Jews were required to wear them! Perhaps avoidance worked for Ms. Smith due to the blatant anti- black violence that existed when she was growing up. I am distraught at the antisemitic rhetoric on college campuses today, especially Northwestern! I feel as though all that was fought for in WWII is under threat to becoming undone, from Ukraine to Israel's sovereignty, due to the rise of fascism here and abroad! I am not Jewish but I contribute to the Illinois Holocaust Museum because of its diverse work and because we must always remember! Its not the time to ignore this hateful rhetoric but time to stand up against it! I am in my 70s, and faced discrimination and harassment during my successful years in the business community that took a toll on my psyche, yet I always persisted! One must always persist to progress! Kathleen

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  4. Haters hate being ignored. So much of it seems designed to make them seem important. To whom? There is something basically inadequate about them. Why give them the attention they seek? And for Trump—ignore him, laugh at him. It will make him crazier than he already is.

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  5. The key appears to be knowing when to walk around the turd and when to take the shitter on. Passive aggression doesn't work when the threat is real.

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  6. My big concern is that shit expands to fill space. And if not resisted in some manor it might find old wore out me. We all know the old trope “ They came for the blank and I did nothing”. Just a thought.

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    1. 🚢🏽‍♀️Trans John/Karen 3/22November 27, 2023 at 1:15 PM

      Ignore them when possible, but always be mindful that they’re out there.

      One of the more bizarre trends following the events of October 7th has sprung up recently. Among a few young men, but mostly young American women, college age and 20-something, fresh from a visit to the salon, highlights refreshed and a mani-pedi, all ready for the camera:
      Are we all aware of what a great man Osama bin Laden was? He left a letter, and a lot of us have read it. In the letter, he describes all the bad things America has done, and how his acolytes were right for what they did on 9/11. (While he was hiding in a cafe somewhere). America deserved what happened that day, it’s all made clear in the letter. I read it, and I believe. Shame on America! Everybody should read Osama bin Laden’s letter, and they’ll know it’s true. I read the Quran, too, and it’s very clear that Islam is a feminist-based philosophy, declaring that women and men are equal. Wow! That’s the kind of religion me and all my girlfriends want to join! If only everybody would read the words of Moe Hammid (sic), the whole world would be a blissful paradise! He was a great prophet, you know.

      Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I’m just not sure who’s crazier these days (moi, perhaps?). Are the Maoists still in business?

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  7. Or perhaps the star was erected by the Jewish museum adjacent to it simply to point out its location and the entrance to the building.

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    1. No doubt. But c'mon guys, read the room. A blue star wouldn't do the trick?

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    2. I'd go with the historical aspect, Mr. S. And also to remind people, nearly all of whom were not alive during WWII, what really happened there.Much more effective than a blue star. Which, to be honest, has more of a connection to Israel than to the Jews of Amsterdam. It is what it is.

      Or maybe it's something like...well...the n-word. A black guy I work with was disagreeing with somebody on his phone, and I was a little bit startled and taken aback to hear him loudly say: "Nigga, please!" Same thing here, only with Jews and the yellow star. Okay for us, but not fer de goyim.

      My wife once made a big felt six-pointed yellow star for our Christmas tree, and we used it for a few years. We both thought that was a real hoot...and on a Christmas tree, of all places. I don't know if anybody else would. We're just a couple of sick puppies, I guess. She finally took it down when I wanted to write "Jude" on it, and replaced it with a big dried-out starfish. Much cooler.

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    3. This is what I found: https://thetourguy.com/tours/amsterdam/anne-frank-world-war-ii-walking-tour

      Seems a curated piece in front of the Anne Frank Museum . No doubt meant to be evocative . Yes a terrible reminder, a memorial.

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  8. I am curious about the painting pictured at the top of the column. In many ways it looks like a Geller; would you identify it? Thanks!
    Mike

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    1. Good eye! It is Todros Geller, “Strange Worlds,” painted in Chicago in 1928 and on display at the Art Institute.

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    2. When I was a young person my family had connections to the Gellers. I have a faint memory of visiting his studio in Chicago

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  9. "If the creation of Israel — the naqba — was such a shock, then what did the Jews do wrong in 1947 and 1946 and 1945 and 1944 and 1943 and 1942 and 1941 and 1940, what was our crime then that so agitated so many people against them? Oh right nothing."
    reading that, i couldn't help but be reminded of a clause in lincolns famous cooper union speech:
    "But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, You say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!"
    i do think, however, that you're being a bit too sanguine about this, i expect things will begin to ratchet up fairly soon. and yes, i do recognize a tad bit of irony in citing the cooper union speech so soon after Jewish students were barricaded inside the library there shortly after the defense of israel began after the hamas attack.
    paul w
    roscoe vil

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    1. Lincoln said: "That is cool." In 1860. Far out, Abe. Groovy, baby...

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  10. The haters want you to hate them, they cannot abide indifference.

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