#that's what I mean by “cultural assimilation” you fucking moron

[former-leftist-jew]

Arabians: the origins group of people in which Islam first was formed, they live in the Arabian peninsula.

No shit.

Muslims: people who fallow Islam, most of whom are not Arabic.

Yeah, because of early Arabian Muslim warlords performing violent religious expansionism and colonialism.

Arabs: a group of people with a wide origin including, Arabians, Egyptions, Lenvantic peoples, Syrians, Bedouins and others who formed base on the mutual use of some form of the Arabic language (originating with the Arabians) as a first langege. Only the Arabians and some Bedouins come from the Arabian peninsula.

Right. Descendants of indigenous populations who were conquered and culturally assimilated by early Arabian Muslim warlords.

Descendants of non-Arabian, non-Muslim indiginous people who were culturally assimilated by early Arabian Muslim warlords ("caliphs, officers, and soldiers" as you put it) who forced their Arabian religion, language, culture, way of life, onto them?

Now that I've used your preferred terms, what do you think of early Islamic Arabian Colonialism and its legacy to this day?

What do you think of non-Arabian, non-Arab, and non-Muslim ethnic and religious minorities in Arab Muslim-majority countries who say "It sucks living under Arab Muslim-majority rule

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

On the topic of hphl - the plot is also so fucking yikes that at first I thought everybody was joking but no, they really did this and I'm just speechless, hphm has its problems with its plot but at least these are only plot holes or just straight up something stupid but not like this holy shit!

Yeah, I got a few responses about the plot, which confused me at first because I hadn't heard anything about the plot, didn't know any details had been released. Did a bit of digging and all I can find is that apparently it's about a Goblin Rebellion. Which does align with a couple of Asks that I got calling the game Antisemitic. Before I go any further, I just have to say...Warner Bros, Rowling, what the hell were you thinking? Like, you have to know this is a sensitive topic among the fandom, right? Were you trying to cause discourse? Trying to get the game cancelled before it's had any chance to turn a profit? Sometimes I think Rowling intentionally trolls her Antis, which I could almost respect (if, y'know, her Antis weren't against her because of the transphobia and stuff) but if you're actively trying to make money, why do this? Why ever touch the goblins again with a ten foot pole?

That said...okay, cards on the table, I am not Jewish. My opinion about this controversy is not the one that matters. But a small part of me is...ever so slightly optimistic?

As crazy as it sounds, let me explain. I don't think Rowling is consciously Antisemitic, she may not be at all. She's tranphobic as fuck, but being bigoted in one way doesn't mean necessarily mean you will be in another, and researching her past tweets...I suspect the way the Goblins turned out was an accident more than anything else. A result of Rowling not doing enough research. Speaking as someone who genuinely didn't know that Goblins began as Jewish caricatures until just a few years ago, I can buy that a writer crafting a fantasy series in the nineties would just see Goblins as another magical creature to include, like dragons and unicorns. I can believe that.

Either way, the Goblins are a part of the Potterverse now. The Goblin Rebellions are part of Wizarding History. There's no erasing that. There's no ret-conning it, (Then again, considering what's been done in the Fantastic Beast movies...) the best that can be done at this stage is to try and fix the awkward parts. I could just be a moron who needs to shut up about what they don't understand, and if so, then I will, without hesitation. But I'm genuinely curious to hear the views of Jewish bloggers and Potterheads as I present the (potential) silver lining here.

Here's the thing - we don't know much about the plot yet. We don't know how the Goblins will be portrayed. Rowling might let us down, as she has done quite a bit recently, but I doubt she's the only person working on the game. While she probably has final say over certain decisions, her co-workers could talk her into a more nuanced approach. Maybe the Goblins will be humanized more. We're seeing one of the Rebellions, maybe we'll see some examples of why they're so antagonistic to humanity? Maybe the game will let us choose to side with them? It's not impossible. The video game platform leaves a lot of doors open to flesh out Goblin culture from multiple angles, and I don't think this portrayal is necessarily doomed from jump.

Maybe it's just because, when I was a kid, I found the Goblins extremely compelling. (I was twelve, I had no conception of how they were problematic.) To me, they were one of the most interesting Potterverse creatures introduced, and for a while, they were my favorite. I remember going through a period of trying to get to know my culture better as a teenager (I'm Native American) and realizing that the Potterverse Goblins reminded me a lot of real world history. Of white invaders stealing and assimilating the culture of the tribes they conquered - which I think is reflected in how Wizards don't allow Goblins to carry wands, and blatantly ignore/disrespect Goblin culture by trading around Goblin-made treasures, even though this is tanatamount to theft. In Deathly Hallows, Griphook "double-crossed" the Golden Trio, but only because he knew they were going to do the same thing to him, and beat them to the punch. Harry ended up proving his suspicions entirely right. Again, it might just be me...but if Griphook was supposed to be the antagonist of this exchange...that didn't land. At all.

So what's my point? That if we get more individual characters like Griphook, and less of the Goblins being portrayed as a collective stereotype...this could be worth it. Could be. Nothing is set in stone yet. And Rowling has disappointed us time and again, so I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. The game could be antisemitic garbage. And on top of that, maybe it wouldn't even matter. Maybe any attempt to redeem the Goblins will only cause more damage. That's a possibility as well. I could always just be a naive idiot hoping that their favorite series can grow beyond it's more shameful parts. But even if they can be redeemed, I don't think the general fandom (to say nothing of the Jewish Potterheads) really want anything to do with the Goblins anymore and would no doubt just prefer they get mentioned as little as possible. It's a sizeable aspect of the Potterverse and I'm sure Rowling doesn't think they're offensive, so she sees no reason to ignore them...but I'm hoping, praying, that the other developers of the game are able to stop her and explain how things could be taken, so she makes different choices or allows for different choices to be made.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Okay but...the reason Peter’s classmates hate him is explained as him being a wallflower and a nerd.

 It’s not in-universe intended as being because he’s Jewish. I mean he does conform to those sterotypes (initially) but saying

 “The reason for this dislike is never articulated. It seems to come out of nowhere — unless you read Peter as Jewish, or as an immigrant outsider. Then suddenly, the classmates’ unmotivated animosity resolves into prejudice.”

 Is disingenuous and ignorant.

  Moreover multiple issues show Peter as not being loathed but merely the butt of the joke. Liz Allan warms to him a lot and the other students do try and include him once or twice but he rebuffs them for one reason or another (usually because of Spider-Man stuff).

 “When he has the chance to stop a robber, he refuses, on the very reasonable grounds that he has no interest in enforcing law and order in a society that has treated him like crap”

  Er...look. If you are an average 15 year old kid and an armed gunman runs past you (or shit if you are any age actually) it’s not unreasonable to not intervene.

 But Peter had the POWER to stop him. Easily. It’s evens tated he didn’t need to use his powers but instead just trip the guy up.

 That’s not ‘unreasonable’ and it’s cynical to say you are going to let someone dangerous evade justice because ‘society has mistreated you’. That’s selfish.

 “Again, the public antipathy to Spider-Man seems excessive and unmotivated — a miasma of prejudice which is mystifying in part because the comic is never willing to connect it to anti-Semitism or nativism. ”

 Yeah no again. The antipathy towards Spider-Man is justified as him being a bad influence on children and taking attention away from real heroes like John Jameson, son of...the guy spearheading the smear campaign.

 Jameson in the early issues is one big Frederick Wertham allegory and it’s not even disguised much. More than this later issues dive deeper and explain the antipathy comes from his own jealousy over Spider-Man.

 Once again, this is painting a false narrative.

 “Spider-Man is not explicitly Jewish in the early comics, but he is hated as if he were Jewish. Certain kinds of people, for unspoken reasons, are never accepted as heroes.”

 He’s hated because Jameson waged a propaganda campaign against him dude. Yeah maybe ALLEGORICALLY that is applicable but most observers have argued it’s got more to do with teenage feelings of ostracization and mistreatment by adults.

 “The original Spider-Man was suffused with a bleak belief that even a superhero couldn’t ultimately overcome prejudice”

 Again, not really that was clearly not the point although many marginalized groups (such as African Americans) have connected with Spider-Man moreso than other characters (including explicitely black ones) so that might have something to do with it.

 “The original Spider-Man comics were suffused with anxiety about assimilation. ”

 No they weren’t. The author is projecting that reading onto them. See the Romita era where Peter has a close circle of friends.

 “Peter swung back and forth between self-loathing and resentment of the culture and people that, for no reason, despised him. ”

 Not really. Yeah he got frustrated but he didn’t hate society at large, hence he fought to protect it. And he also had moments of joy, humour, sarcasm and a generally wide emotional spectrum. Which made him realistic and relatable which was the point.

 “Peter’s Judaism, more than half denied, is discernible only because it was hated. That tension is gone in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

But is it gone because anti-Semitism is gone? Or is it gone because the film simply ignores or erases Peter’s links to Jewishness altogether? ”

 It’s ignored because Peter in Homecoming is a white washed Miles Morales.

  “When Spider-Man was (half) Jewish, he was not loved. Now he is loved, but isn’t Jewish. Similarly, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson, and Mark Ruffalo are all Jews who get to play supeheroes just so long as they’re on-screen characters are not identified as Jewish. ”

  Okay except Peter Parker in universe was literally not Jewish so there is no representation issue here beyond just portraying him in a way true to his original character. Which WAS a problem with the movie but not because it’s erasing Jewish representation.

  “The cineplexes are filled with heroes imagined by Jews. But it’s still hard, apparently, to imagine a Jewish hero.”

  Ben Grimm, Kitty Pryde and Magneto are all literally Jewish in-universe and at least one of them has been a mainstay of cinemas since 2000.

 And surprise surprise...Noah Berlatsky wrote this presumptuous article which states as fact what a character is about whilst ignoring all other context because he INSISTS on (the most damning) social political interpretation ever.

But what else would I expect from the jackass who said Superman is an offensive sterotype of Jewish people, the Hulk is a racist allegory for black people and oh yeah, authored a book literally called Your Favorite Super Hero sucks.

 Because he is a pessimistic, cynical, moronic, poorly researched asshole who hates on this stuff because he hates it...and presumes he knows much more than he actually does.

P.S. If Berlatsky knew wtf he was talking about he’d KNOW this was a white washed Miles movie and about you know....fucking Magneto ‘no Jewish superheroes’ My God what a jackass

[burkithebee]

To that wonderful hater anon 💛🤙

What beautiful words you sent me today! I didn’t think that I would interest you so much, you see? I am delighted that you had the courage to send me an anonymous message, daring to insult me, calling me a racist and so on, saying that I could say something that you absolutely didn’t understood.

Well, I’ll say it one last time. Nicolas used the word NIGGAS, because yes this is not a forbidden word, it’s a word like the others that can be sometimes affectionate, when it uses in a good situation like when you are with YOUR FRIENDS, and sometimes VERY pejorative example; when you talk about a black person and you say about him, with any reasons, that he is a nigga. Hitler and Nazism is bad and yet we do not say H or N. Nicolas used this word because it comes from a song by Asap Rocky, that I reaaaaaally love, and which REPRESENTED their state of mind to the moment on the picture.

Now, having black friends. When this word arrived in France thanks to the American culture with rap, for example. We immediately understood in what context we could use it or not. So, between us, we sometimes called ourselves niggas; Me, a little French girl of German descent, I didn’t bother myself to called them like that (I mean all of my friends even they were blacks, arabs or white -sorry I don’t have asians or hispanics friends :(-) and them, little black Frenchies of African descent (too many nationalities are represented so I can’t quote them all) didn’t bother themself to called me and the others like that.

In a purely friendly context, everything is ok because we all know that this is a way for us to saying that we are brothers, all together and no matter what. Too bad for you, you thought I was the kind of person who wants that all strangers that are not white leave my country while that I am the first to defend immigration? :( Oh, poor baby.

To go back to Nicolas’ case, he just forgot that now he had a certain notoriety as far as he is a friend of a well-known goalkeeper in germany and switzerland. So, inevitably, people pay attention to what he does, or what he says. And the only thing that people have remembered is that NICOLAS used the forbidden word (I mean by that, THE WORD N) and immediately, without trying to understand why or how, they began to assimilate him and what he wrote, as a racist. Let’s get to the point that I want to clarify. I never said that he had all rights just because he is handsome like the rest of his friends. And that’s where you obviously NOTHING INCLUDED about what I could SAY of all this fucking shit story that starts to EVER come out through all the pores of our skin.

I said that I didn’t find anything racist in the quote that he put in the description of his picture. Because, it’s a fact, there’s nothing racist about this because to the extent that he pulled this phrase from a rap he likes. This sentence represented their state of mind in the fact that at that moment they were together, between them, between friends, between brothers. And? They call themselves niggas, it’s a little “hype” way of giving a nickname between friends. What is the problem? It’s forbidden ? Because it shames the black population? Because this is a part of history that we would like to forget? Slavery and other ill-treatment? I don’t think this is a solution, I find it rather good to learn from the past, making an about-face to all this hate, seem to say “ok, we are niggas! Very well, yes we are, and then what? We are black, we are brothers and proud of all that!”. This is what we must remember of this word.

The strong value and not the one that is pejorative and that lowers the black population. That’s what people didn’t understand. I, who am not black, I felt it like that. Because yes, you dare to insult me of racist but darling, you don’t even know me, me who am for peace, the live together and for the love of peoples, no matter their skin colors. So, tell me that I’m a racist, that made me smile. Because you don’t deserve my annoyance, my hate or my attention, and that’s why I don’t reply directly to you about what you sent me (and as I see you like to come there to look at what I post even that you find me a racist, what a lovely person you are) because I don’t give a fuck of your little face, frustrated of life, who has no courage to come and show himself publicly by telling me what you think that’s bad in me. 

You are cowardly and pathetic, but I can understand that when you don’t understand the half things that happen around you, you can only make your world shit. Finally, it was a little bit awkward for Nicolas to use this word even if, and the poor, he has nothing to look back at what he did, contrary to what you might think. 

And the last thing that I want to say is that I don’t encourage ANYBODY, and I mean, ANYBODY, to use that word publicly because it can be very badly perceived by people and the world around you can don’t understand your intentions. For other big racists who think it’s funny to treat a black as a ‘dirty nigger’, god see you and hear everything, it will pay one day. 

 That’s what I think about all of this, this story (which went too far for not much at all) and Nicolas. Now, if you think I’m still racist, I’m impatiently waiting for you to my ask box to say “wsh, it’s not because you have a black friend that you’re not racist lol lmao.” 

 Dark moron that you are. 

 But I love you all the same, because you are surely a beautiful idiot who doesn’t realize how ridiculous you are by insulting people without apparent reasons and especially in anonymity. Love you. 🌎🌍🌏