Two years back I did a story on Columbia University activists where I marveled at their colorblindness. The leftwing students did not actively identify, as Asian, Jewish, etc., all the labels with which I am obsessed. I had to drag it out of them. It was a point of pride to them to speak of their ethnic/religious identification as a childhood inheritance and not something they would carry into life.
We live in an era of diversity. I have many times announced that on this site. The idea came into the mainstream a year ago with the announcement that Obama was running a "post-racial" campaign. On Election Night, McCain made a lot of Obama's race in a celebratory manner, but Obama did not mention it directly.
Obama is more color-blind than I am. Yesterday I taught a class at the New School and I noticed that the kids seem invisible about a lot of these identifiers. I talked about my Jewish cohort in college 35 years ago and I felt like an old man.
Can I get with it? I put myself forward as the herald of this change, but in my eyes I am back in the old ways, I notice the differences. I place people in categories. My sister-in-law berated me about this last year. We were at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and I was asking her as I always do about Are there Jewish members? (Haim Saban's obsession too.) When are you going to get past this? she shouted at me. (She had a copy of Dick and Jane Do Yiddish. She loves Yiddish, her daughter goes to Shabbat services at her college, gets a Jewish beard to take her.)
I said, Kathy, the neoconservatives think about this stuff night and day and they got us into the Iraq war in part on this basis.
Look forward! she said.
Can I look forward? Am I going to measure myself forever by the feverish ethnic concerns of the neocons and that dustbin-generation? Can I stop seeing skin color and tags? Can I help the world heal itself of this madness and become truly diverse or will I continue to sow the seeds of racial division?
Great piece phil! Keep writing ponderous narcissistic crap like that and even your Nazis will stop reading you.
it appears him haygood won't stop reading you, then again maybe he is one of the nazis he refers to, so all bets are off!
And forward in a sustainable world, a more local one, might be more tribal in association, but less racial or ethnic.
Can you explain to me how are neocons ethnically concerned?
Michael W, I think Phil has a valid point. Just read Elliot Abrams' "Faith or Fear," where his line that "it is the very nature of being Jewish to be apart — except in Israel — from the rest of the population" appears. It's very much on his mind and very much at the heart of his worldview. And he's just one example. Doug Feith is another. There are many more.
As always Phil, great piece. I'm humbled by your honesty and your inquiring nature.
You mention that the kids nowadays are more color-blind. At least in part this comes from the often unproductive teachings of political correctness. I have the feeling many kids don't want to identify themselves or others as members of ethnic or religious groups, because everyone and their mother then screams racism and religion is bad and so on.
@Richard Witty:
"a sustainable world, a more local one, might be more tribal in association, but less racial or ethnic."
That was nice. More tribal, but less racial. I think that's the way to go now: don't be ashamed if you think locally, but also don't be offended if one of the locals is gay/black/muslim whatever. What counts is that all stick together to some degree.
It's stuff like this that convinces me that you too are in here for the good cause.
Look forward!
Yes, I heard that a lot too. …
But Richard, aren't you looking back constantly too, only from a opposing point of view?
why don't my html tags show lately? Hmm?
For the past sixty years some Asians have changed the shape of their eyes surgically to make them appear more Western, or more acceptable to Westerners. As America's economic affluence diminishes, I expect the trend to operate in reverse, with Americans having eye surgery to make them look more Asian. If economics rewards color blindness, then it should flourish.
Post racial would be great
The ancient Indians talked of all mankind as being one,
and I believe that is what Islam is saying
Then I look around at the patriotism and xenophobia unleashed, where Bush and Blair whipped up hordes to go off to foreign lands -
and there seems no solution, cause those in power can always appeal to a herd instinct
Although a melting pot like the US might be the first to breakthrough
There are many reasons people associate, one of which is that they affirm that they are Jewish, with all the obligations and mission that that entails.
My Jewishness is nearly completely present-forward. I thank the past for bringing me to this moment, and providing the link to a reliably authoritative and authentic revelation. "I am the Lord thy God" (God is One, Transcendant and Creator) and "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" (oppose spiritual materialism).
"You are a nation of priests" (Your purpose on the planet, your purpose of association is to realize the transformation of what is mundane to be understood as profound.)
I honor and value the past, live in the present, and work for the future.
Phil in rejecting Zionism because the neo-conservatives adopted a jaded approach to it, seems wrong to me.
I prefer the approach of reform by involvement.
In my shul, the officers all know of the nakba, and regard Palestinians as human beings. While he might be able to say that in some elite New York congregations, the leadership hold more cynical views, he really can't say that of the synagogues in my area.
I assume that my area of the world is more liberal than NY or LA, but that those places are more liberal in ALL respects than Houston or Dallas.
On your eyes, you can fake them by wearing contacts.
On your fundamental personality, you can intentionally add dimensions by regular prayer. (A year of affirmations that are both true from depth to detail and particularly designed for yourself, have an enormous effect.)
The changes from prayer are actual, not cosmetic.
Allah forgive America.
Witty, if you and yours are "a nation of priests" does that mean in comparison to any other nation/people? Or is it just a bald abstract statement of belief? Many now think that priests are mostly pedophiles. Do you mean a nation of teachers, rabbis? If so, maybe you should look closer at what they teach, both in creed and deed. I realize people like to feel they belong to a group, whether it's they like this football team or that one, but in the end, life is not a game. The rules change, depending on who's in charge. As a Jew, you should absorb that historical lesson more, more like Phil has done.
@ "The changes from prayer are actual, not cosmetic."
Mmmm, nobody ever got a real boost from, say having a nose or boob job? Is one result more
actual than the other? Does it not depend on the audience in both cases?
Ethnic tension is essential to human ecology. If you take it out by force or choice, eventually it rebuilts in different shape. There is a strong tendency in nature for similarity and symmetry to balance tension and chaos. Trust and beauty balance fear and trade, etc. As long as there is no other being (bar the count D.) able to challenge man's supremacy there is no need for man to forsake the advantage of being a garden instead of a plantation. And for the individual it only makes sense to live as a drop while he falls from the clouds or while he awaits for the sun over cold leaves. Sublime but fleeting moments before either evaporating or returning to the main flow and then to the seas which touch each other only through tormented capes, where monsters still abode, or so it is said.
Citizen,
To your question, my answer is who knows?
The obligation originated during the Exodus process, and is BOTH transcendental in orientation and sequential. That is one of the meanings of priest, the transformation of what is profane in orientation to what is profound.
There is a proscribed and very specific sequence of literal instructions, with an intimate and therefore flexible personal means of implementation.
Some regard the obligation as isolated to Jews, and even among Jews only to Cohenim, and only performable in "the temple". While others apply the concept to "all my relations", and regard all that adopt the firm (to the bone, to the blood) obligation with the flavor derived from Torah to be the nation Israel ("Israel" means "one who grapples with God".).
I think each are important. As the temple doesn't exist currently, prayer is meant to simulate.
Its not clear, and won't be. The opportunity to brand Jews as "privileged" or thinking that we are exists and doesn't.
Your choice of how to relate to it, actually tells and influences more for good or ill than what Jews think.
Witty
"Phil in rejecting Zionism because the neo-conservatives adopted a jaded approach to it, seems wrong to me.
I prefer the approach of reform by involvement."
more Witty brilliance
–it's wrong for Phil to reject an evil movement.
–Neo-consevatives responsible for murder and dispossesion of
millions are merely jaded.
–reform by involement might include joining the Nazi party in
hopes of dissuading WWII – I get it.
But he already belongs to the Nazi (I mean Zionist) party – I see great changes from his involvement there.
Spare me the drivel Witty – no response necessary.
By the way whoever posted the priests are paedophiles thing should be apprised that rabbis are equally prone to sins of the flesh – for some reason it doesn't make much newz.
it seems kids in every generation are idealistic. we were this way too (babyboomer). but as they grow up they return to the prejudices of their parents. i noticed this with my jewish friends, in college they didn't care about it, now they do. i was shocked when frieds started going kosher. what is this superstition. how could they claim to be rationalists?
So it's true. Phil's post seems to indicate what I'm beginning to face; we have gone backwards. What kind of generation uses it's entre, influence and affluence to buy a false sense of seperation for its children.
Phil, you are about the same age as you, I take it. Are you old enough to have been involved in, or at least excited by, the Civil Rights struggles of the 50's and 60's?
"You are a nation of priests"
Richard Witty
You do realise Richard, that by any possible Jewish interpretation you just blasphemed, bad, real bad.
We are most certainly not a nation of priests.
"You are a nation of priests"
What religion do you think you are, Witty? No, I don't know an awful lot about Jewish theology but I think I can say we are most certainly not a nation of priests. We had some priests, but I think they sort of lost their entre for our failure to follow and uphold the commandments.
All I can say, Witty, is that your distortion of a Jew's relationship with God enables you to make the same distortion about your relationship with others. And I think that's bad for the Jews. We can see what it does for you.
There are a lot of people in this world who do not automatically assess whether every person they meet is Jewish or not. Witty, I suspect, knows in the first microsecond. I just don't see that this automatic dividing of the world into them and us does anyone any good. It seems to me that at bottom it's based on false notions of racial/ethnic superiority. Why else would you need to know?
As for Witty's notion that Jews are a nation of priests, that implies that the rest of us are members of his flock, people by definition in need of moral instruction. Judging from his posted apologia for Israeli behavior, I'd be surprised if there is anything important Witty has to teach the rest of us about morality. If you are going to fix someone else's vision the first thing you do is remove the log from your own eye.
@Mooser and Duscany
Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the
words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
Exod. 19:5-6
Duscany, "priest" in the Torah doesn not mean quite the same thing as it does today. A priest's job was simply to maintain himself in a state of ritual purity and perform the innumerable sacrifices that the Law required.
The idea of a priest as a moral leader with a flock is entirely Christian.
"I said, Kathy, the neoconservatives think about this stuff night and day and they got us into the Iraq war in part on this basis."
I agree. You should say were you really mean Phil. The Jews got us into the Iraq war. Bush and Cheney ate blood matzoh in a satanic Jew neocon ritual and became neocon zombies.
Phil, blink.
Well, I admit I know nothing about Jewish theology (or any other theology, for that matter) but this is what Rabbi Winston says about Isaiah's injunction to Israel to be "a light unto nations":
In simple terms, it means to advance mankind morally, by acting as a conduit of sorts for the wisdom of Torah, as it is relevant to the nations of the world. The method for achieving this end is to achieve national moral perfection, as much as possible, given the demands of daily life. If the whole nation shows commitment to the values of Torah it is bound to catch the attention of the world, and inspire them to live according to a higher standard of morality.
People pay lip service to the supposed "progressive" ideals of Diversity and Racial Mixture while often doing the opposite in their private lives, i.e. sending their kids to private schools with a more homogenous student body or moving to certain suburbs to escape the dubious benefits of more "diverse" neighborhoods. Actually, untrestricted Immigration, both legal and illegal, along with the immense and fatal demogrpahic changes it brings, along with the inexorable economic, political, and military decline of the United States, will serve to heighten racial differences in the years ahead, not diminish them
Its an inspiring comment. Did you mean it to be, or did you mean it as demeaning?
When ARE you going to get over it? Who cares if you are a Jew..unless you are one of those whining tribal or Lukid throwbacks….no body cares what you were born they only care what you do.
Hello?…we voted for a black President and he doesn't act like he has a problem
with his orgins.
When is e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e going to g.e.t o.v.e.r themselves?
Holy christ!…I am a WASP, a Southerner, a Son of the Confederacy..born the sterotype of everything Waspy and I got over that pigeon hole long ago.
Wear some green eye contacts, people will think you are Irish or Welsh and when you ask if any Irish belong to tennis club they will just think you are drunk. LOL.
Those who can afford to move to gated communities and send their kids to private school are a small percentage of the general population, and with the economic downturn, the percentage is likely to get smaller still. There is much less of a stigma now associated with inter-racial marriage and I see a lot more bi-racial children around now than I did 20 or 30 years ago. I think the population in the United States is more likely to become more, not less homogenous in the years ahead.
No, not demeaning. It rather struck me as an accurate explication of what Isaiah mean by his injunction that Israel be a "light unto nations." David F. had suggested that I had misunderstood the "nation of priests" concept. Rabbi Winston's explanation seems to suggest I nailed it pretty good.
you betcha, phil
Why does our census bureau and so many state and federal forms of every sort require you to mark a box identifying your
"ethnic" type? The state demands you so identify yourself, and many political groups and talking heads and press opinions
constantly discuss race, ethnic groups, etc.
So, you didn't hear the rabbi saying, by our actions we hope to influence others for the best?
I applaud that attitude. And, if that derives from Torah, then what a wonderful contribution.
Your fear that it means privilege over you in some odd way, or that implies any demeaning of your life is a negative fixation on your part.
It is Jews' given and accepted responsibility to live in accordance with specific and quite high moral principles. Definitely it needs work.
And, yes it starts with me. But, if you believe what you propose, you would also start with yourself, not with me and not with Jews whom you regard as an other.
"Why does our census bureau and so many state and federal forms of every sort require you to mark a box identifying your
"ethnic" type? "
Does that box include the designation "Jewish"? I don't think it does.
And ethnic identification is voluntarily noted (you have no obligation to answer if it you don't want to) to help administer programs to minorities who have been harmed. And in America,the Goldenah Medina that is not the Jews.
"Holy christ!…I am a WASP, a Southerner, a Son of the Confederacy..born the sterotype of everything Waspy and I got over that pigeon hole long ago."
"white they call me"
Yes, I remember how for many hundreds of years, people thought that Southern WASPS were actually sub-human. Treated them as chattel, even! And then after the War of Northern Agression, there was a 150 year period of lawful discrimination and second-class status for Southern WASPS. I don't know how you escaped the consequences of this, which is usually so devestating, but there are noble exceptions in every race.
But my empathy for your suffering will always bind us together. I just hope I dont get patronising or condescending. Please tell me if I do so. It's just mis-guided empathy.
And Mr. "white they call me", I do everything I can to dispel the myths surronding your people. I never allow any discussion of white Southerners to pass without telling people how gosh-darn hot white, Southern WASP girls are (And I send them to Philip Roth for confirmation. I mean, if that's how sexy Northern white WASPS are, imagine the ones from warmer climes!)
I will not stand idly by while a noble race is put-downed!
It would be great if all people could get along and work well together, but nothing in America suggests it will happen here. I think Obama pretty much let Middle Americans know what he thinks of them during the campaign, and if it didn't get through then that the nation is Balkanized, I think Robert Reich drove the point home when he declared which group should not get jobs under Obama's make-work programs. Live and Let Live is a great concept, but why fool ourselves about what is really happening?
Many Americans have protested census methods of racial classification because, in the past, to have non-white "blood" had a social stigma, until racial discrimination was outlawed in the 1960s. Conversely, today some critics decry what they perceive as preferential treatment for racial and ethnic minorities, who these critics say unfairly receive employment programs, student loans, college admissions and other awards by affirmative action policy. The critics call it reverse racism, and some states lifted or changed the policies in the 1990s as the debate over racial preferences continues.
The fact remains that ethnic ID is very often a precondition to getting governmental aid in the USA. Marking the ID "white" never helps.
"And ethnic identification is voluntarily noted (you have no obligation to answer if it you don't want to) to help administer programs to minorities who have been harmed."
I guess you mean to aid minorities (not in five US states, nor in many US cities, and, in a decade or so, not anywhere in the USA) with free taxpayer funds simply because of their family tree. It's in one's interest to
claim anything except "white" or "European" in background. It actually hurts whites financially to claim they are white.
Think about that.
And I guess you mean any minority member who's ancestors somewhere in the past were harmed for being born so? Jeez, even Obama has stated his own kids shouldn't get any preferential treatment. But that has not stopped him from supporting "affirmative action" programs sans any qualification.
Excellent! I always tell the guys how hot Jewish girls are. How they love to get some non-kosher fun. I won't stand idly by while a noble race is put-down! I can only imagine how hot Israeli girls are in their warmer clime.
Yep. It was clear Obama & Reich intend to stick it to poor working white folks. In 20 years or less, white parents will be telling their kids how they were too idealistic when they voted for Obama. Their kids
will be helpless, and will turn to violence as a last resort.
Attaching ethnicity tags onto people is natural and I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as long as they're not there to affirm prejudices.
Universities are great places to see real equality and diversity. People do work and get along together, and they are better (and more productive) places because of it.
Shafiq
Whites or European-Americans have been leaving "more diverse" areas of the country in droves to get away from the legions of Third World Immigrants and the Black/Brown underclass. More liberal or "progressives" use every excuse in the world to justify this, i.e. "they want an area with a lower crime rate," "better schools for their kids," etc. As far as the U.S. becoming less homogenous in the years ahead, this is unfortunately correct, but the result in the long-term will be the balkanization and break-up of the U.S.
Universities are islands of unreality. Even with Affirmative Action policies, whether voluntary or government mandated, Asians and Whites usually excel while Blacks and Browns struggle to maintain even a mediocre GPA. There are always exceptions to this, of course, but such is the general state of affairs.
Some of these comments are quite amusing. One guy supports some sort of "post-racial" tribalism, whatever that is, while others seem to think a "post-Zionist, or non-Judeocentric Israeli Identity is possible? How naive can one get? There will never be a "One-State solution" of any kind. The can only be three outcomes to the Israel-Palestine conflict; Israel will agree to a "two-state solution," dismantle all settlements, agree to partition Jerusalem, and retreat to the '67 boundaries, thereby preserving its essential Judaic identity, or, an ultra-Likudnik or Kahanist regime will take matters even further and just expel the entire Arab population into Jordan or Syria, or the status quo, perpetual conflict until one side surrenders. All other scenarios exist in the realm of fantasy.