VVhite Jewish Women and Oppression
Last month I asked if people believed vvhite Jewish women were oppressed. I asked this question with the intention of exploring an intersection that’s outside of race, which is what’s defined my own oppression. Regardless of my intention, the impact leads to Jewish people being harmed, offended, and triggered by responses to my question. To anyone who was hurt in any way, I apologize for the harm that you experienced.
I usually apply the analytical framework of intersectionality to understand the hardships and trauma Jewish people experience. I’ve even suggested in past lectures that white Jewish women should bring their heritage with them when entering intersectional spaces. However, I never viewed them as being intersectional — at least, not in the way that Zora Neale Hurston referenced and Kimberle Crenshaw coined.
How is a term and concept that was created to address the dangers that Black women face specifically (weathering, maternal mortality, domestic violence, police brutality, etc.), also be used to identify and center the challenges of white Jewish women? Does the privilege of whiteness cancel out oppression? Have white Jewish women been iced out of intersectional spaces because their oppression was ignored due to their whiteness?
“ Hurston carved out a story of intersectionality before there was a term for it, before there was a way to understand someone as complex and outside of their lived experience as black, female, oppressed and poor.” — Samihita
“Do you believe white Jewish women are oppressed?” I asked friends and followers on Facebook. The responses were immediate, and many were intense. Many white Jewish women answered without hesitation, stating that they had not experienced oppression. There were also white Jewish women who were offended that I had to ask. There were Black women who held the concept of oppression to the same systemic and body policing standards that we’ve been forced to adhere to. There were Jewish women who gave a considerable amount of emotional labor to elaborate the variables that create circumstances where white Jewish women are indeed oppressed; they're aesthetic, where they live, oppression stemming from their Jewish community, etc.
Not everyone was as interested in exploring the intersection white Jewish women exist in as I was. There was one guy who kept posting photos of Israeli girls with guns. There was the white Jewish woman who called me a piece of shit for not taking the post down. But there were also women who dared to critically think and unpack the correlation between anti-Semitism and womanhood. There was insightful conversations about the trauma past down to Jewish people, as well as an examination of the privileges, restrictions, and erasure that come with cultural assimilation; something that both Black Americans and Jewish Americans understand deeply. And, sadly, there was also anti-Semitic references.
“Neither African American men nor white women needed to combine a race and gender discrimination claim to tell the story of a discrimination they were experiencing.” Kimberle Crenshaw
Oppression Olympics
For Black women, it is not solely our womanhood or solely our race that puts us at risk of great personal, social, physical, legal, and emotional harm; it’s when those two hardships intersect that misogynoir, medical malpractice, police brutality, death, and other consequences that affect Black women exclusively become activated.
“Just because it’s not the same doesn’t mean it isn’t real!” Several people said to me. Well, of course not, I thought to myself. But… what is it? I would learn later that it is anti-Semitism and it’s as threatening as it is real. With the same fluidity as racism, anti-Semitism has a way of showing up as ‘innocent’ comments, untruths, and beliefs that Jewish people are sneaky, greedy, and no good. However, I still struggled to understand how anti-Semitism oppressed white Jewish women.
A quick Google search on Asian American women and oppression can lead to a host of statistics, essays, and think pieces which carefully explain the link between discrimination Asian American women face, and the oppressive conditions it leads to. The same can be said of Latinx women, trans women, and disabled women. While the hardships that non-Black women of color face may not have the same deadly consequences that plague Black women, blatant discrimination, bigotry, and fetishization plays a huge role in how they gain employment, how they date, and their social standing.
The fact that finding resources to help examine the effects that anti-Semitism has on white Jewish women is not only disappointing, but it’s also counterproductive. Lack of examining the identity of white Jewish women presents a huge gap in understanding how they can join a coalition alongside Black women, with respect to oppression and the power dynamic that their white supremacy presents. The exploration of the intersection white Jewish women reside in does not require a comparison of oppression, however… where’s the data?
Black Women. White Jewish Women. Intersectionality.
Last spring, Quartzy published an article I wrote explaining why I was breaking up with intersectional feminism — at least, the intersectional feminism that white women have understood it to be. I was angry that something that was designed to help me navigate and survive my own oppression had been reduced to a hashtag of epic proportions. And, I was resentful of white women who began identifying themselves as ‘intersectional feminists’, yet, had no desire to center the issues and crises that Black American women face. The ignorance and indifference non-Black women of color have towards the intention of intersectionality have left Black women at risk of being oppressed and policed by white women in our own spaces (ain’t that some shit?)
Emma Goldberg’s Haaretz op-ed, White Jews Have Found Privilege in America. Black Communities Have Not examined the backlash Tamika Mallory experienced in light of her affiliation with the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan. Goldberg brings to light the fact that, when it comes to Black people like Tamika Mallory and their affiliation with the Nation of Islam, it isn’t a simple Black and white issue. “In managing the controversy that emerged after Farrakhan’s speech, we’ve failed to engage the fundamental tensions at stake in Mallory’s words and the Jewish community’s response,” she states.
Here in New York, where Mallory’s from, members of the NOI are doctors, teachers, barbers, and everyday people. Nation of Islam is well-known for their positive presence in Black communities, from showing support of families who are victim to gun violence (as they did for Tamika Mallory), to rehabilitating Black men released from prison. Most will not hesitate to denounce any form of anti-Semitism and express their discontent and disagreement with Farrakhan. They will also likely explain that, due to racist factors and communal support, they will not break ties with the religious organization that has held up so many. For Black women especially, the idea of canceling one Black woman for having ties with a relevant portion of our community is non-negotiable.
There are white women and white-passing women who have spent a morning, noon, and night trying to ‘coach’ other white women out of their own white supremacy. It was these same women who washed their hands of me for asking, “Do you believe white Jewish women are oppressed?” In a current climate where white Jewish women can demand that Tamika Mallory step down from her position as co-head of the Women’s March, yet, have the effrontery to support Bette Midler in light of her comment of women being the n-word of the world, the dynamic of the oppressed and the oppressor begs to be examined. Especially when it’s Black women who will always be at the totem pole.
The analytical framework of intersectionality is the blueprint that helps Black girls understand why they are likely to receive lesser-than treatment in professional, social, and academic environments. It allows us to protect ourselves from violence, educate ourselves on the risk that is exclusive to our intersection, and build an immunity to the racial tropes that paint us as unattractive, uneducated, ill-mannered, angry, sassy, and loud. For Black women who carve spaces for ourselves with the intention of exploring our intersection, the welcoming of white Jewish women is equal parts confusing and threatening. While it can be our differing oppression that unites us, it’s their whiteness that’s proven to be a greater divide.
Tamela J. Gordon is a New York-based writer. She’s the creator of the women’s empowerment group, Sisters with Aspiration, as well as SWA’s Black Feminists Book Club, an online space for all women and non-men to explore the literary and creative works of Black women and women of color (yes, white women can join). You can gift books for readers, or contribute to Tamela’s work and future projects HERE. Follow her on Patreon! To contact Tamela for speaking engagements or creating your own women’s empowerment group, email shewritestolive@gmail.com
