#holy week is not an excuse for antisemitism

[snarkleharkle]

As a it's not complicated Catholic; the idea that the Jewish people killed Jesus goes against Vatican 2 and have been frowned upon since the council of Trent. It's basically heresy.

a reminder that “holy week/easter” is coming up this week.

good friday” is this friday and easter is the following sunday, so we are likely to see an uptick in antisemitism, particularly tropes around deicide and blood libel. if you see this, call it out.

if you are jewish, please look after yourself. avoid the internet if you can, engage in some self care, connect with your jewish community.

if you are not jewish, particularly if you are christian or raised christian or live in a dominantly christian society, you need to be aware of the history of antisemitism and antisemitic violence surrounding the easter season and the ways it manifests today. you should be actively working to uncover the antisemitism you have absorbed throughout your life and actively encouraging others to do the same.

[uiruu]

holy shit that person with the etika icon who defended pewdiepie for the fake kkk outfit story out of habit, without knowing it was fake, lmao, this guy:

i had to see how they responded, but it turns out i have this person blocked already, apparently we had an interaction a week ago where he said that mental illness excuses someones homophobia and antisemitism ofkqwpofkgpokwergpowekrg

[soulfulauror]

The topic I’m bringing you today is one that I’ve grappled with for nearly as long as I’ve played Tina: Jewishness and the Wizarding World with respects to Tina.

Let me preface this that while I’m a conversion student (reform) I’m not from a Jewish family myself. Although I’ve started to practice religiously I cannot and will not call myself an authority on the matter for ethnic/secular Jewish people. As this is also a headcanon post while I will touch on minute details of my research I will not express every nuance, but I am happy to share texts and ideas.

Being a wizarding Jew: Religious or Ethnic? One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve seen in the FB fandoms in regards to the Goldstein sisters is that their relation to their Jewishness has to be religious. It does not. The Jewish people are one of the oldest people with written history, language, and culture in the world. There are people born Jewish, by Jewish law, that do not practice religiously and don’t believe in a higher being. This is the first thing I like to make a point of when writing either of the girls: They don’t have to be religious.

America in the 1920s in relations to Judaism: Like many different ethnic and religious groups there was a spike in immigration by the Jewish people in the 18th through 20th centuries. In particular, in the 19th century immigration happened due to Russian pogroms. Antisemitism was on a global level with Henry Ford in the United States writing propaganda in the early 20th century.

The 19th century also saw the introduction of a new form of Jewish movement in Baltimore, the Reform movement. Jewishness on a religious level within the United States was broadening. There were “modern” Jewish plays on Broadway. The introduction of the reform movement was considered a revitalization by some and in other ways, it was pulling away from a traditional Jewish identity in a time where being Jewish was dangerous and on a global scale unwanted by peers. This only heightened post WWI where the Jewish people were considered the “problem” and we know what happens from there.

New York in the 1920s had one of the largest Jewish populations on the planet and today still holds the second largest (after Israel). Different census says that the Jewish population at the time was anywhere between 30-50% of the population and reached a high in the 20s*. This means the wizarding population of New York would have, subsequently, had a large Jewish population and their own cultural identity.

Religion and witchcraft. This is a topic that I consider on all types of levels-- For a strict, orthodox Jewish person the idea of witchcraft would be considered against the Torah. For Conservative and Reform Judaism it might change a bit. But even for Orthodox Jews for the wizarding world it might be considered “an exception”. For this I’d like to direct you to a fanfiction about an orthodox Anthony Goldstein: here who explains the concept far better than I can.  The idea essentially is that if not doing something (practicing/learning sorcery) will become a danger to others is it strictly wrong. And in this case, we know that magic can act explosively if not handled properly and, if repressed, results in an Obscurial.

Jewishness also has pagan roots and it’s own mysticism in Kabbalah. Early temple era practices involved ritual sacrifice (largely of animals that eventually got written out). I haven’t done enough research into Kabbalah itself to want to firmly say anything on it but a quick definition is, “ Practical Kabbalah in historical Judaism, is a branch of the Jewish mystical tradition that concerns the use of magic. ...  “ Sukkot is, in a sense, still one of the most pagan-like traditions held.

So what does this mean for Tina and how does she handle her Jewishness? Well, not that we got the highlights of what I consider about her identity itself down let’s discuss Tina’s history itself:

Regardless of what debates may come up I will always write Tina as ethnically and religiously Jewish. Full stop. However, I also consider the effect that having lost her parents would have here. For my version of Tina I write as if her parents died somewhere in between her being 8 to 9-years-old. By this age she has a more firm grip on how her parents treated their own identities and it’s part of the cultural values she grew up in.

However,  that was over fifteen years ago and for 9 of those years she would have been in most of my verses an orphanage (and I have reasons for that and I’ll write a headcanon on that one day). And when she wasn’t she was at Ilvermorny which, instead of collaborating cultural identities seems to be like England and no-maj America more Christain based. I’d like to think in a perfect worl children would be excused for religious holidays to practice, but given how religion is non-existent in this world it’s doubtful. So she went to a secular boarding school where Christmas, Easter, etc would have been the major holidays.

Still with me? Cool. So now that we’ve gotten all of the bits and pieces together that I’ve considered for Tina the fun part comes in:

I write Tina as culturally Jewish, led by Jewish morals and ideals, without a belief in g-d.

 By the time her parents died Tina’s morals would have been formed and these are the things I have written into her character. Without dwelling on it long I’ll lift some titles from one of my favorite works Jewish Wisdom by Rabbi Joshua Telushkin on this. “When to Give, What to Give, How to Give,” “Helping the Helpless,” “The Obligation to criticize, How to do So, and When to Remain Silent,”  “Listen to her voice,” “Either friends or death,” “A Person is Liable by his Actions”.

These are just some of the passages in this work that I feel plays into Tina’s character and I try to subtly put in. Because I do feel like that I shouldn’t have to constantly say she is Jewish for her to be Jewish-- Action speaks just as loudly as words and that’s what, to me, fits Tina best. So when I write her I consider how the Torah and Talmud would work and this Jewish morality, not necessarily adhering to mitzvahs (though she does to many, but she doesn’t live by them).

Saying she doesn’t feel religiously Jewish, however, doesn’t mean I don’t feel like she does nothing either. The interesting thing about Judaism is that you are allowed to grapple with it and come at your own terms. It’s that reason that it’s completely possible for wizarding Jews to be religious too-- Because it’s all about finding your own identity with g-d.

Tina’s had a difficult life, though. She lost her parents at a young age, she’s seen cold nights with no food, struggled to be successful and it’s always been something she had to do on her own. It’s not necessarily that she doesn’t believe in g-d she’s just come to terms with h him in her own way-- And this way is more of a spiritual reflection than anything.

She does believe in the holiness of Yom Kippur, for example. It’s the one time of year that I write she asks for off and insists on. Any other holiday she’ll work if she has to, but this is the one time she pressed for because it’s a period of reflection for her-- She’ll work through the week leading up after Rosh Hashanah but she earnestly takes the time Yom Kippur gives to understand herself, come to terms with what she did during the year, and it’s also a time she pays respect to her parents.

Tina’s Jewish identity for me is directly connected to the loss of her parents. After they pass away she has no reason to go to shul anymore, no reason for prayer, other than daughterly obligation. Again, she lived in an over-crowded era where kids like her would have been extremely lucky to eat properly. She’d have no reason to believe in those circumstances, but se still tried.

 Every year without fail Tina lights a candle on Yom Kippur. She’d save up whatever nickles she could find when she was little. And now on the anniversaries of their deaths she visits their gravestones and places a rock. When she was old enough to give Queenie anything on Chanukkah she’d present her a single present, not much and it took too long to get the money for it--

--But for Tina she’s a woman who holds onto those memories and moments with her parents. She lives in her mother’s old apartment, wears their old clothes, keeps a locket that I personally write as her mothers. Holding onto these small moments is like holding onto a piece of them.

Tina is also a bit of a scholar as seen with her various books and I don’t feel that ends on the magical spectrum. She does earnestly want to know about the background she comes from, so she’s read the Torah and she reads scholastic works. And occasionally if she’s off at the time she walks to the nearest shul on Shabbat mornings.

Her Jewishness is a part of her and it’s something she grapples with. A younger her was angry at the concept of g-d allowing her parents to die, an older her understands that some things happen and it’s how you deal with them, the strength that pulls you through that happens. That there are no guarantees and what you can do is by acting with just and moral decisions. And that’s exactly how she lives.

Kosher is something I waffle on and this goes back to the remarks of “Hot dog, again? ...Not a very wholesome lunch.” Which I and many others do think is supposed to go back to that, but again I think it’s much more complicated-- Technically eating pork/non-kosher/what not is allowed if there’s nothing else to eat and you’ll starve otherwise. So I think as a child, before her parents died, Tina ate kosher-- But after they died it became eating whatever came by. That included pork or dairy products or whatever was there. 

As an adult she does try to eat kosher for the most part, but she also eats at a matter of convenience. Hot Dogs could be kosher, but stand ones are unlikely so she probably justifies it by she needs to eat and she doesn’t know (and Waterston has saidt hat Tina gets so stressed out/works so much that she forgets to eat). There’s also some Jewish people who eat kosher in the home by don’t outside of it simply because of the idea they don’t actually know if a place is entirely kosher (since strict Judaism calls for such foods to not even be cooked on the same utensils).

The last and final element I consider is the fact that Tina is a woman who has high morals, strong loyalty, and a constant work-ethic. What this means is that although I feel she asks for at least one holiday off a year she doesn’t stress the others-- Her spirituality is more important and she can’t justify taking many off. Especially not during the High Holidays in the fall when you’re not /technically/ supposed to work for a month. She simply can’t afford that and I’ve read a few articles where even on Shabbat if it’s a greater loss to you (ie: money/food/etc) it can be justified and since her Jewishness is more spiritual than religious...

Well. Tina is a practising Jew, within the confines of the life she’s been given. She is very culturally Jewish and knows Yiddish and Hebew passably enough, Yiddish more so. She’s even a scholarly Jew, wanting to learn what she can even if it’s not necessarily something she makes part of her identity. Tina is very proud of being Jewish and holds it close to her heart as part of her parents. She’s just not a Jewish person who has quite come to concepts with her own idea of g-d or if one exists for her.

I would go on but this is already long and I think this covers quite a bit of information without going into my feelings on Tina versus period-antisemitism.

Thanks for coming this far if you have!

[telumber]

Regarding the Protests Against Tzipi Hotovely’s Talk at the LSE

Students at LSE protested a talk this week by Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the UK.

Hotolevy is, as a matter of public record, a “blood and soil” racist and ethno-nationalist. Rather than go over her entire record we can illustrate this point by looking at just one of her positions:

During her tenure at the Committee on the State of Women and Gender Equality, she invited in 2011 representatives from the Lehava organization (Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land), which in 2015 was recognized in Israel as a terror organization, to a discussion on their activity to prevent romantic relationships between Jews and Arabs. Hotovely defended her decision at the time, saying, “it is important to me to check systems to prevent mixed marriages, and Lehava are the most suitable for this.” –Ynetnews

Questions of historical denial, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, sovereignty and territorial claims can be complex and leave room for argument, but the idea that the government should intervene to prevent race-mixing is clearly beyond the pale.

A student group, LSE for Palestine, organised a protest against Hotovely being invited to speak at the university. The speaking engagement went ahead, and protesters booed Hotovely as she walked to her car.

This is their statement on the protest:

https://twitter.com/LSEforPalestine/status/1458407137391042564

A video shows Hotovely being escorted to her car by her security while protesters boo in the background. Nobody approaches her in the video. One protester, some distance away, is tackled while crossing the street.

The protesting students did not prevent Hotovely from speaking or interrupt the event itself.

There are no claims of violence being directed toward Hotovely or her bodyguards, and LSE for Palestine did not issue any threats. In the video, protesters are the only people shown being assaulted.

The protestors did not express any anti-semitic sentiments, confining their criticism to Israel as a state and Hotovely as an individual.

The response from the media, the Conservative Party, and the Labour Party, was unanimous support of Hotovely and condemnation of the protestors.

The Jewish Chronicle, a publication with a history of making false accusations, invoked comparisons to Kristallnacht, describing the students as “a Jew hunting mob on the streets of London.”

Karen Pollock of the Holocaust Educational Trust, shared a less defamatory JC tweet and described the scene depicted as “absolutely shocking.”

Daily Mail journalist Dan Hodges said of the students “These people are fascists.”

Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, the shadow Home Secretary, wished Hotovely well and said “Antisemitism has no place in our society.”

Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was “disgusted” and also condemned anti-semitism, pledging to support the police in “investigating this appalling incident.”

Lisa Nandy, the shadow Foreign Secretary, also used the phrase “appalling treatment”, said that there was “no excuse” for the behaviour of the protesters, and that “freedom of speech is a fundamental right.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer said of the video that “This is totally unacceptable. Intimidation and threats of violence will not be tolerated.”

Newspaper headlines took a similar tone, with only Al Jazeera mentioning the perspective of the students. Other papers focused on the feelings of MPs (‘deeply disturb[ed]’), Hotovely herself ('will not be silenced’), the use of words such as “mobbed”, “almost attacked”, “barracked” to imply violence occurred without actually saying there was any violence, and mentioning “investigation”.

Less reputable publications such as Spiked went for direct attacks on the protesters as “shameful” or “sinister”, but again without claiming violence actually occurred. Some outlets claimed falsely that she was prevented from speaking.

ITV: Ministers condemn 'deeply disturbing’ protests outside LSE university event with Israeli ambassador

BBC: Israeli ambassador protest: LSE investigating threats against Tzipi Hotovely

The Guardian: Priti Patel backs police investigation of LSE protest against Israeli ambassador

The Independent: Israeli ambassador to UK rushed out of LSE after pro-Palestine protests

Sky: Israeli ambassador says she 'will not be intimidated’ following London protest

The Times: Israeli envoy Tzipi Hotovely mobbed by LSE students after debate

Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: 'I will NOT be silenced’: Israel envoy who was barracked by hard-left student mob brands them 'shameful’ for trying to silence her and defiantly vows to refuse to be intimidated

The Jerusalem Post: Ambassador to UK Hotovely almost attacked by anti-Israel protester

Times of Israel: Israel’s UK ambassador evacuated from London university event amid protests

Spiked: This wasn’t a political protest – it was shameful mob behaviour

The Spectator: The sinister targeting of Israel’s ambassador at the LSE

Al Jazeera: Students defend protest against Israeli ambassador at LSE

Commonly cited as evidence of the violent nature of the protest are a pair of Instagram posts from the now-deleted account LSE Class War. The account was not active, having only nine posts at the time if its deletion.

There is no evidence the account was associated with LSE for Palestine, and the protestors did not take the advice of the account to attack the Ambassador’s car or storm her talk.

The account was in the news once before, in July, when it issued a set of demands which were described by right-wing commentator Toby Young as “read[ing] like the work of a satirist” and included banning private school students from attending the university.

https://politics.readsector.com/2021/07/27/lse-students-demand-university-bans-all-private-school-students/

It appears there were no spokespeople, protests or other actions in support of this list of demands -just an Instagram account, which posted 9 times and was deleted after inciting violence.

So we have, on the one hand, an entirely peaceful protest against a speaking invitation by an anti-miscegenation racist.

On the other, without hyperbole, the entire British media and political establishment lining up to falsely accuse the protesters of:

Anti-Semitism

Censorship

Violence

Threats & Intimidation

Fascism

Attempted Lynching

The evidence does not currently support a single one of these accusations. Yet both parties of government and respected news outlets share a consensus that the students are guilty of one or more of the above.

[daddyd0nt]

Oh my god the responses are nauseating how could this be any human's response to the genocide of civilians. When "The Muslims" knocked down the twin towers (we all know who really knocked down the towers but for the sake of argument lets pretend that it actually was just some random young Muslim men whose passports survived an impact so hot that Jet fuel apparently melted steal beams which once again i know is impossible but just for the sake of argument) there was this same sentiment. The Muslims are violent freedom-hating animals and every Muslim child will grow into a dangerous Muslim adult who wants to invade your country and cut your clit off (my dad showed me grainy footage of a clitoridectomy a few weeks after 9/11 and explained that thats what the Muslims wanted to do to me and why they needed to die). People wanted revenge (especially in NY, I live less than an hour outside the city, there were multiple kids in my school who lost family members in the attack).

These people are still swept up in the rage of October 7th and until they spill enough blood to feel like they have gotten their revenge (which is every Muslim man woman and child) they still see themselves as the noble defenders against a "barbarian" uprising. My Jewish friends were deeply traumatized by October 7th, it was the first reminder in a long time that it has never been safe to be Jewish. Some of them have coped with zionism-lite, condemning specifically the violence against civilians but excusing it as necessary to beat Hamas. They see Hamas as being like the Taliban or Isis even though Hamas at this point is mostly teenage orphans throwing stones and improvising explosives. Until the hostages are released they see every action as a necessary evil to rescue the hostages, and believe that the Muslims could choose to end their suffering at any moment by releasing the hostages and returning to the unjust status quo. To them it is justified because it isn't just a land dispute, it is a holy war and god is on their side (in a way it is just a continuation of the crusades).

Theres a lot of mental gymnastics going on to justify atrocities because the Jewish people are still fairly freshly traumatized from their own genocide, the Holocaust was 2 generations ago (recent enough that I interviewed survivors for a school project in 11th grade and talked to survivors of the Demin suicide and was told by little old ladies that lived in rural areas that they had no idea there were camps or a genocide going on and that the only sus incident she remembers is once a shipment of soap came into her town and there was a rumor it was made with human fat), and my zionist-leaning friends genuinely from the bottom of their hearts believe that if there is not a Jewish state, there will be another Holocaust, and that the existence of a Jewish state is the only thing thats been holding off another Holocaust all these years. But even them, they pray for the innocents killed, they pray for an end to the conflict and the safe and swift return of the hostages, they condemn the IDF targeting civilians, they pray that God will not forsake them like he did less than 100 years ago. There HAVE been an increase in antisemitic crimes since October 7th. When the bombing happened, people were openly celebrating the idea of death to Jews. Like I said, the Jews are a traumatized people, and when you are acting from a place of trauma it is easy to justify the unjustifiable.

Even my Zionist friends are disgusted with what Israel is dong to the Muslim population. These people commenting are not Zionists, they are likely not even Jews, they just hate Muslims and are happy to see them killed in any way. If they ran out of Muslims to kill, they'd literally start killing the Jews next, they don't care about the cultural trauma the Jewish people have suffered or the fear of being a displaced people without a homeland making them vulnerable to genocide. That being said, there ARE a lot of Jewish people in the IDF who appear to have switched from "Never again" to "we deserve a turn, too" and that is deeply scary

I can't believe this world contains such heartless people‼️

With a heavy heart, I ask you to help my family by donating any amount. It will make a difference in protecting them.

[butterflyinthewell]

I hope you listened to why people where upset with you and learned from it, rather than just freaking out and then brushing it off. Learn something from this, better yourself.

Let me be brave...let me be brave...let me be brave....

Putting trigger warnings here in case people don’t tag them in reblogs.

tw nazi mentiontw hitlertw death threatstw rape tw murdertw suicide baitingtw sex mentiontw gunstw violencetw anxietytw abuse tw emotional abusetw cyberbullyingtw anon hate (not for THIS anon, but for the kinds of things I mention anons sending to me.)

Hello, anon.

I didn’t brush it off at all. I apologized, but I don’t know if it ever got acknowledged.

I freaked out because the way I got attacked by anons triggered a flood of emotions related to being emotionally abused and bullied. I had no control of the response other than to delete the cruel messages and type out how I felt to contain my panic. 

The only anon I really responded to publicly was the one who said I was being manipulative for posting how scared, confused and upset I was. I was deliberately trying to avoid using tags that people surf or not tagging at all except for triggers so only my followers would see those posts. I used ‘actuallyautistic’ occasionally when I did panic. 

If I want a post to get attention, I make sure the first five tags are popular ones that get a lot of visits.

I made a mistake. I fucked up. I blew it. Yeah, I get it. It was not intentional at all, but people wanted to make sure I felt as bad as I could possibly feel about it over and over. It’s the exact mob mentality that terrifies me on this site.

I don’t resent being educated. I’m glad for that. I’m grateful and thankful for that. Somebody very kindly explained why the comparisons made people angry instead of saying “don’t compare these things” without further explanation. I can’t learn if I don’t understand why something is wrong. My brain works in specifics, if thing A is wrong, I need to be told that thing B and thing C are also wrong and why they’re also wrong, or I may not connect those dots. It’s autism brain, it’s been that way since I was a kid. That is not an excuse, it is an explanation. An excuse would be “it’s autism, I can’t help it and I don’t need to change my behavior” and I never said that about this incident.

Someone made the time to give me the “why” that I was missing. I felt like an asshole even though I had no ill intent, and I wish more people would acknowledge that my intent was not to cause harm rather than throwing me into the same box as people who are purposefully cruel. People have come to me with kind messages saying they know I wasn’t being offensive on purpose and I appreciate them very much, but I feel like the people who I accidentally hurt won’t ever acknowledge my apology or that I didn’t have ill intent.

Again, I don’t resent people educating me. I took it in and listened to them.

What I resent is the flood of people telling me that I should die, that I’m an antisemitic bigot, that I suck Hitler’s dick and that I’m a Nazi whore. People told me I should get murdered and thrown in a ditch. I had people telling me that I should slit my wrists, jump off a bridge and get raped. I had people saying I deserved every bit of hate I got and that I don’t deserve any of the friends I have on this site. I got called a “basic bitch” (whatever that means), a fraud and homophobic. 

Then I got told I was going to be shot and I wasn’t going to see it coming, which led to me being afraid to open my blinds or leave my house between Monday and Thursday. For my Holy Week stuff at church, I kind of sat or stood slightly away from people so if those shots came, they would only hurt me and not anyone near me. I acted more fine than I felt. I kept watching peoples’ hands for any sign they were taking out a gun. I only felt safe when in enclosed areas away from view of large crowds.

I kept it quiet while it was happening because I didn’t want to call attention to those kind of messages. It’s been about a day and a half since I last got something nasty in my inbox about the whole mess, so I guess people are tired of the whole ordeal. I sure am. 

I got the mob that I’m deathly terrified of. All for a mistake. I came very close to deleting my Tumblr. I got as far as my cursor over the button, but couldn’t click it. Deleting would disappoint more people than my mistake ever did. I remembered all the people who say my blog keeps them going, and I would be letting them down if I vanished totally. I thought of all the nonverbal autistic people who need lots of daily help and can’t make their communications understood who would go totally unacknowledged except as caregivers’ scapegoats without my posts telling the world that they exist and deserve love.

I never set out to intentionally hurt anyone, but I got treated as if I had. I apologized for what I said and adjusted the video to reflect why it’s gone so that people see the issue is dealt with and won’t feel the need to slam me all over again. I really wish people would delete their reblogs of the post, but I know that’s asking way too much.

I didn’t brush anything off. 

I really hope people didn’t brush my apology off. It’s really not fair to keep shoving a mistake at someone when they make it clear they learned from it and have been beat up enough for it. I get it, I fucked up and I’m sorry for the pain I caused.

But once you fuck up on Tumblr, there are people who see you as always a fuckup no matter how hard you try to do better after setting off the hate mob. 

Again, I don’t resent being educated. I appreciate that people educated me. What I do resent are the people who repeatedly shoved the mistake back in my face as if I’m not allowed to pick myself up and move on after learning from it.

That is the one downside about Tumblr. Mob mentality is a terrifying thing. 

Unfortunately, it’s one of my triggers when it’s aimed directly at me because the bullying I got in high school involved being publicly humiliated in front of crowds of other kids and being taunted repeatedly by members of the crowd afterward. 

There was a boy who threatened to rape and murder me daily, and nobody did shit to stop him. I was told “He’s just being a boy. Ignore him. He probably has a crush on you.” So messages about “you’re gonna get shot bitch watch your back cuz you won’t see it coming” had me going back to the thinking patterns and defense mechanisms I utilized in high school. I freaked out and made myself small for awhile.

Having my feelings dismissed as ‘manipulation’ are exact words my emotionally abusive dad uses on me whenever I’m not emoting “properly” according to some esoteric rules he never bothers to explain to me. That made me get even more confused and scared that nothing I said or did was going to be right and that everyone was going to hate me forever.

I’m not seeking pity, here. I’m explaining these things to you so that you can understand why I behaved as I did in response to the situation. I was taking measures to prevent catastrophic panic attacks that would’ve led to me deliberately getting cruel in attempt to scare everyone away. That would NOT have gone well, and I’m glad I recognized I was falling back into a pattern and wrote it out instead of being silent until I blew up completely.

For the record, again, I am sorry for the harm the Shatner letter post caused and I hope people acknowledge that yes I know I screwed up and I learned. 

[intersex-ionality]

i saw something the other day saying discrimination against Mediterraneans could never be racism since white people can't be racist against white people but doesn't that kinda erase the problematic history of what counts as white and the fact that there is a history of people not considering Mediterraneans white?? just wondering if you had any thoughts on this

Shit, I know I wrote a post about this exact topic a couple weeks ago, and I hope I can find it for you, but long story short, you’re right.

It completely erases the fact that “white” is not actually a static, contained category, but is instead an ever shifting laundry list of who is Acceptable and who is Other.

There’s a reason why, even in the US, people still refer to “WASPs” as being Truly White, and all those dirty looking Eastern Europeans and weird gross Catholics as being inferior and other (not nearly on the level of racism or antisemitism or anything, but rest assured). 

The definition of white in the united states has expanded to included mediterraneans as long as they’re Pale Enough (I mean look at Milo Yia-nope-olis; you can’t be the head figure of a white supremacist movement without having achieved whiteness), but that doesn’t mean that italians, greeks, spaniards etc are classed as white in other places. 

And it also doesn’t even fucking touch on the fact that the mediterranean peoples are not in any way limited to europe I don’t know how people managed to forget this but the mediterranean sea and her people’s extend well into the arab peninsula and fucking africa like holy shit.

Last I checked we were all more or less in agreement that MENA peoples aren’t classed as white, so like.

But yeah, anyway, white is a completely made up category and mediterranean people aren’t included in it in lots of places. Like, for example, white Australia treats greeks and other mediterranean people (lebanese especially, apparently) as Horrible Filthy Racially Inferior Invaders.

That said, I do want to emphasize that certain mediterranean peoples (namely, the european ones) have achieved a reasonable level of Whiteness in the US so don’t let people use global racial identity issues to “excuse” them being racist sacks of shit in the US under the guise of “I’m ~*~mediterranean~*~ we’re a people of color we can’t be racist.”

Anyway, I found that other post. This is a good version of it which includes some other mediterranean voices (european ones), and some south american voices as well.