jewish-privilege:

optometrictzedek:

nbnightwing:

antifrance:

you know what, i’m about to say it

it’s not just expecting jews to be or proclaim to being pro-palestine/anti-israel/antizionist that is antisemitic, it’s also expecting them to hold or proclaim to holding perfect pro-palestine/anti-israel/antizionist views and politics all the time. and by ‘perfect’ i certainly don’t mean sensible, nuanced, or productive views and politics, i mean views and politics that unchallengingly espouse the mainstream narrative of a solidarity movement riddled with antisemitism. pro-palestine jews become agents of zionism the second they express the slightest discomfort at the unchecked and rampant antisemitism in the movement, the tokenization of their activism, the exterminatory rhetoric surrounding israel, the use of material produced by people with a history of antisemitism, the abuses of bds, the support for deeply antisemitic & armed religious movements, the celebration of people who killed civilians, the erasure of jewish diversity, history and culture, the denial of antisemitism from the holocaust to the jewish exodus from muslim countries, the inappropriate and ahistorical nazi comparisons, the toxic strategies used to dodge accusations of antisemitism – i could go on. expecting jews to be uncritical supporters of a movement in which antisemitism – that is, for those who forget, anti-jewish racism – has such a large audience and amount of offenders, that’s antisemitism, always.

Please feel free to stop me if I’m overstepping my bounds here. But this got me thinking about a whole new facet of the privilege I have as someone who’s not Jewish that just…didn’t hit me until this moment. 

I have the ability to say that I don’t know enough to state an opinion, and I won’t be attacked but lauded for it. I can say that I don’t have the background or the nuance to be able to explain everything, or to give opinions on aspects of the situation, and I won’t be judged for it. I won’t face backlash for it. I won’t be in danger for it. People will praise me for my nuance and for my ability to admit that I don’t have to know everything, while Jewish people are not only expected to know each and every detail of the situation, they’re expected to espouse letter-perfect Ideologically Pure™ views as a prerequisite for their mere existence in seemingly progressive spaces. I can literally exert the least possible effort and be praised for it, while Jewish people are expected to throw themselves in with words and actions that are actively harming them in order to simply be invited to the table, and that’s honestly the most horrifying realization I’ve had in a while. ‘

I’m attempting–and please let me know if I’m failing–not to center myself in this narrative, but hopefully to convey to people who previously considered themselves outside it that they’re not. That the ability to walk in activist spaces WITHOUT thinking about it is something not everyone can do, and that not actively opening doors is as good as holding them shut. 

An identity that isn’t inherently politicized by others by mere virtue of existence is a privilege. Ignorance is a privilege. 

You are 100% dead on and not overstepping at all imo. A+

Thank you for vocalizing it, too. It really, really helps when this comes from allies rather than Jewish people sometimes.

An identity that isn’t inherently politicized by others by mere virtue of existence is a privilege. Ignorance is a privilege.