>It’s really disheartening to hear so many objections to “race” or “class” stories on NPR as these are the pieces that speak of experiences like my own
They could reasonably apply to me, too (I'm Jewish, raised in a Christian town, was wildly bullied through middle school for being Jewish). Yet somehow I've always felt that aspect of my identity was the least interesting about me. I don't care about Judaism, or Jewishness. After the Nth Holocaust movie it was like "Enough already, I get it." I wanted to talk about science fiction and physics and music and girls and sailing and yoga and computers and all kinds of other things. It's a strange impulse to want to "center" aspects of yourself that other people feel are important but you don't. (Of course, Jewishness is odd, because later in life people wanted to talk about it because of their positive prejudices - this was, if anything, even more annoying, because it was something I didn't care about and it was uncomfortable flattery and it was well-meaning so it was hard to put the kabosh on it.)
It's funny but I notice how many of the liberals pushing against left-wing extremism are Jewish. Jonathan Haidt comes to mind, but there are many others (who currently escape me). My hypothesis is that we are, as a group, relatively recently assimilated, and we know how much worse it could be, and how damn good Enlightenment Culture is compared to all the rest, and how far America has come with Jewish acceptance. Assimilation is great because it works both ways - I can't tell you how much it warms my heart to see people use words like "schmuck" or "kosher"! I don't think it would have helped me then, or helped now, to have "race" stories about Jews in American Christian suburban middle schools. If anything, I can imagine making it much worse, giving me a victim complex and a habit of blaming the system, instead of taking my social L's, and out-performing the shit out of my dumb-ass classmates, and laughing all the way along the rosy path of nerd-dom. Maybe one thing Jews really do have is a sense of humor about racism and bigotry, since we've dealt with so much of it over time. But I recall no stories of Jewish minorities guilting the majority into "centering" their experience and hating themselves and their own culture. And if I did I don't think I'd see this as a win, but as a dastardly act of passive-aggression and dominance that is unhealthy for both groups. Oppression is not the way, of either the minority OR the majority. We grow and merge and love each other and take on the best qualities of each and that's awesome.
Sorry to hear that, but can you quantify it? Like, do you get verbal abuse at work 5x a day, sneers at the grocery store every time you go, or what? Or are you talking about online talk about your identity? (I hate to break it to you, but with that last one literally every human being on Earth can find a metric ton of online abuse directed at them if they look for it.)
What people say about you (or your ethnicity) is orthogonal to the reality. Its hurtful only insofar as you attach yourself to their perceptions, and people are fundamentally ignorant. One of the things people seem to forget is that humans are by default deeply bigoted (and authoritarian). It's a miracle that there exist any places on Earth that have managed to curtail those instincts. If you live in such a place (and I'd count America, even Texas, as one of them) count yourself lucky. Let ignorant people flap their gums; it's hot air, signifying nothing.
>It's funny but I notice how many of the liberals pushing against left-wing extremism are Jewish. Jonathan Haidt comes to mind, but there are many others (who currently escape me).
Scott Aaronson and Scott Alexander come to mind. Also Edward Blum, though he's more of a "classical liberal" than a liberal in the modern sense.
They could reasonably apply to me, too (I'm Jewish, raised in a Christian town, was wildly bullied through middle school for being Jewish). Yet somehow I've always felt that aspect of my identity was the least interesting about me. I don't care about Judaism, or Jewishness. After the Nth Holocaust movie it was like "Enough already, I get it." I wanted to talk about science fiction and physics and music and girls and sailing and yoga and computers and all kinds of other things. It's a strange impulse to want to "center" aspects of yourself that other people feel are important but you don't. (Of course, Jewishness is odd, because later in life people wanted to talk about it because of their positive prejudices - this was, if anything, even more annoying, because it was something I didn't care about and it was uncomfortable flattery and it was well-meaning so it was hard to put the kabosh on it.)
It's funny but I notice how many of the liberals pushing against left-wing extremism are Jewish. Jonathan Haidt comes to mind, but there are many others (who currently escape me). My hypothesis is that we are, as a group, relatively recently assimilated, and we know how much worse it could be, and how damn good Enlightenment Culture is compared to all the rest, and how far America has come with Jewish acceptance. Assimilation is great because it works both ways - I can't tell you how much it warms my heart to see people use words like "schmuck" or "kosher"! I don't think it would have helped me then, or helped now, to have "race" stories about Jews in American Christian suburban middle schools. If anything, I can imagine making it much worse, giving me a victim complex and a habit of blaming the system, instead of taking my social L's, and out-performing the shit out of my dumb-ass classmates, and laughing all the way along the rosy path of nerd-dom. Maybe one thing Jews really do have is a sense of humor about racism and bigotry, since we've dealt with so much of it over time. But I recall no stories of Jewish minorities guilting the majority into "centering" their experience and hating themselves and their own culture. And if I did I don't think I'd see this as a win, but as a dastardly act of passive-aggression and dominance that is unhealthy for both groups. Oppression is not the way, of either the minority OR the majority. We grow and merge and love each other and take on the best qualities of each and that's awesome.