our current moral-political moment has absolutely no clue what to do with The Jew, either. this is a really interesting essay & i'll have to re-read it a few times, i think.
our current moral-political moment has absolutely no clue what to do with The Jew, either. this is a really interesting essay & i'll have to re-read it a few times, i think.
We like to joke about being "Schr├╢dinger's whites" - we're grouped with the whites by people who are fighting to eradicate white supremacy, and we're grouped with the non-whites by people who are trying to secure the existence of their people. And we're blamed by both for having started the whole mess in the first place. Scapegoating the Jew is, as I'm sure you're already aware, not exactly a novel idea.
While reading this essay I was struck with the thought that Jews are actually the inverse of Asians in the American context. Yes, we're strivers too, but we got to where we did by being non-conformist, whereas your strategy is precisely the opposite. We break the rules you do your best to follow. Even that ten-second Chomsky quote illustrates my point. Who's in the interviewer's seat, the conformist or the outlier? Do you even know his name? Does it matter?
But didn't most Jews ascend through education and then professional service careers (law, finance etc)? What do you mean by breaking rules/non-conforming?
Like a brilliant jazz musician, you have to be intricately familiar with the rules before you break them. Jewish culture encourages dissent, debate, and disagreement. Out of that friction comes the confidence (some might call it chutzpah) to try something no one has tried before. Yes, most Jews did exactly as you say. But it was the exceptional few who dared to break the barrier to show it could be done in the first place.
our current moral-political moment has absolutely no clue what to do with The Jew, either. this is a really interesting essay & i'll have to re-read it a few times, i think.
Thanks!
If you liked this, you might enjoy my novel as well.
We like to joke about being "Schr├╢dinger's whites" - we're grouped with the whites by people who are fighting to eradicate white supremacy, and we're grouped with the non-whites by people who are trying to secure the existence of their people. And we're blamed by both for having started the whole mess in the first place. Scapegoating the Jew is, as I'm sure you're already aware, not exactly a novel idea.
While reading this essay I was struck with the thought that Jews are actually the inverse of Asians in the American context. Yes, we're strivers too, but we got to where we did by being non-conformist, whereas your strategy is precisely the opposite. We break the rules you do your best to follow. Even that ten-second Chomsky quote illustrates my point. Who's in the interviewer's seat, the conformist or the outlier? Do you even know his name? Does it matter?
Not to be difficult.
But didn't most Jews ascend through education and then professional service careers (law, finance etc)? What do you mean by breaking rules/non-conforming?
Like a brilliant jazz musician, you have to be intricately familiar with the rules before you break them. Jewish culture encourages dissent, debate, and disagreement. Out of that friction comes the confidence (some might call it chutzpah) to try something no one has tried before. Yes, most Jews did exactly as you say. But it was the exceptional few who dared to break the barrier to show it could be done in the first place.