Been thinking about antisemitism a lot these past couple of weeks, in particular, why it can be such a blindspot for people and organisations with otherwise decent race politics. Thread incoming, me paenitet.
What are the specifics of antisemitism as opposed to other forms of racism? Beyond historical origins (more on that later), it makes itself known through street mobilisation (vandalism, slurs, violence) and politicised imagery (tropes, visuals, framing, conspiracy theory).
These two elements work together, of course, and the latter plays out in the mainstream as well as the margins of our culture. The street element works on policing cultural distinctiveness; the images (often) work on disavowing Jewishness itself as their target.
Figures coded as Jewish stand in for villainy - usually associated with finance, lobbying, or a shady transnational cabal. Despite this having a long and bloody history, such images are so embedded in our political repertoire, they're often not even recognised as antisemitic.
But why is antisemitism such a blindspot? Why does it remain so embedded, yet goes unnamed, in our political culture? Two reasons - one material, and one socio-cultural, which I think have a bearing on each other.
Antisemitism - in this country, at this point in history - lacks the element of material dispossession or institutionalised state violence. From the mid 20th Century onwards, Jewish people have been to a significant degree incorporated into whiteness (if not British nativism).
By this I mean that being Jewish alone (there are obvs other factors at play, like class, gender, sexuality, hair/skin tone) is not likely to put you at more risk of incarceration, poor housing and health outcomes, or subject to forms of control like deportation or surveillance.
Antisemitism is unmoored from some of the main ways in which we have come to understand racism. You have a cultural 'alien' who is not an 'illegal'. A 'deviant' who is not a 'criminal'. A social force which undermines democracy, but is not a demographic or civilizational threat.
So this is the material element of why we can be so blind to antisemitism. The anti-racist left is ill-equipped to grapple with a form of racism which is not a causal factor in class composition.
And as for the socio-cultural element... we're not going to find it by looking at our political culture. We need to look at our playground culture.
Growing up in North London, there were no shortage of Jewish people in my life - from adults in positions of responsibility, to school mates, crushes, frenemies and shotters of bad hash that's 50% dust bunny and 40% oregano. It was a diverse upbringing is what I'm saying.
So bigotry stemming from lack of proximity was not an issue. However, our whole culture - tropes, jokes, throwaway phrases - was steeped in antisemitism. I honestly cringe thinking about it now.
On the one hand, there was a casualness around the history of Jewish suffering. People, esp in our chippy teens, made jokes about Nazis (which in hindsight must've been deeply alienating and wounding for our Jewish peers) because it felt like another world, and lacked immediacy.
And on the other hand, were the old antisemitic tropes of associating Jewish people with money, and miserliness. The cognitive dissonance was astounding - as Spurs fans, we could articulate solidarity with our Jewish neighbours, but still repeat nonsense about Daniel Levy.
This language wasn't neutral. It was loaded with antisemitism, the product of a history of violence. But it was often uttered without malice. Esp in a school where people weren't rich, it was almost an articulation of admiration. This doesn't actually make it a compliment though.
Essentially, we could spout the antisemitic tropes or make jokes which minimised antisemitism, because we thought that only actual goose-stepping Nazis could be antisemitic. In no part of our education was antisemitism taught as anything other than a contained phenomenon.
These are the two reasons why (I think) the specificities of antisemitism means it goes unrecognised. But why doesn't it get challenged the way it should? That's because - like all other bigotry - dominant culture is one of reproducing, and not challenging, racism!
Holocaust denialism comes back in a political context in which our political and media classes are bending over backwards to deny that racism itself exists. The denial of Jewish suffering here is not the outlier, it's the rule.
We can talk about the specificity of antisemitism, and that's incredibly important. But if we can't think about it in conjunction with xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-blackness, we will consistently fail to understand why it ebbs and flows at different points of history.
I'm gonna leave it here, but really interested in what you guys think (although antisemitic and racist cranks can, as ever, do one). Hope this thread hasn't been a complete waste of your time xx
