I get terribly offended by the relatively new term "white privilege."
Honestly, it's antisemitic.
That nasty term hides/denies how most Jewish immigrants struggled in their early decades in America.
The vast majority of Jews who moved to the United Stated in the previous two centuries were fleeing poverty. The wealthy didn't come, only the poor.
The "WASPS" didn't want them and quickly passed a quota law to keep Jews out. FDR wouldn't even fill the quota when those fleeing the Nazis tried to legally enter the United States. And if you check your history, Harry Truman didn't improve things after World War Two. Holocaust survivors had a very difficult time getting visas to live in America.
Sabbat observing Jews were discriminated against and needed new jobs weekly, or made do as independent peddlers.
It didn't help that the Great Depression was making it hard on many. The last to be hired and first to be fired were Jews.
Many Jews went to work as young as possible to help their families. Even those who graduated high school as academics ended up working, since they couldn't even afford the "free" universities.
Those using the term "White Privilege" are inventing a false history, a lie. I find the term very offensive.
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| Zachor Remember |
7 comments:
As far as I can tell, "having white privilege" means "how dare they be successful". Chinese-Americans are also accused of "having white privilege"; they, too, arrived in America poor and were very much discriminated against. Native Americans, of the same genetic stock as the Chinese, by and large, have not been successful and therefore are not seen as having "white privilege".
I agree with you, though, that the sentiment is both unpleasant and redolent of Judenhaas.
If you work hard, get no special privileges, one's condemned for success.
"White privilege" isn't about economic success. The idea of white privilege is simply that white people (in the US) don't have to deal with certain challenges that face non-white people. It's intended to encourage white people to think about those kinds of things when discussing issues of race. The most common example is probably "the talk" that pretty much all American black parents feel that they have to have with their kids regarding interactions with the police -- an element of white privilege is the privilege of not having to deal with that. The point is not to make white people feel guilty, but to remind them of that challenge facing black people. (Note: There are certainly some CRT types who do want to make white people feel guilty, but IMO the phrase's more productive usage is still worth considering.)
I don't recall anyone ever claiming that Asian-Americans have "white privilege." In fact, not having to worry about being attacked on the street over the pandemic can be considered another example of white privilege.
As for Jews, well, I would say that white Jews do have white privilege to some extent. But that doesn't negate the fact that all Jews face our own challenges as Jews. One of which, of course, is the fact that those who believe in white superiority don't consider Jews to be white, while those who see whiteness as inherently bad do consider Jews to be white. (Which is why white privilege in the form of an accusation is particularly distasteful to Jews.)
People see the word "privilege" and immediately wonder how it's fair to apply it to white folks who aren't economically privileged. But it's not a privilege of *having* something; it's a privilege of *not having to deal with* something. Frankly, it was probably not the best term to use.
>> The "WASPS" didn't want them and quickly passed a quota law to keep Jews out.
It took well over 30 years. Maybe forty years. 1881 to 1921.
From 1884 or 1885 through 1917 all U.S. immigration laws that passed were "quality" laws. They had no numbers in them. Even though the 1884 and 1885 law cut immigration in half.
Quotas as percentages of what ethnic/religious groups were in America before a certain date. Incoming immigration had to conform with those percentages.
First 1910 (in 1921) and then 1890 in 1924. From July 1, 1921 through July 1,1924, ships trued to arrive as early as possible in the month but not before the 1st.
The reduced the quotas in 1924.
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