Is this anti-semitism?

from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/09/florida-banned-textbooks-math-desantis/

He also labeled text featuring data on implicit-bias tests and prejudice as critical race theory and highlighted an antisemitic joke that appears in the book: “Why do Jewish divorces cost so much? Because they’re worth it.”

that sounds like a weird joke to include in a math textbook

I just had an interview with a prestigious scholarship awarding body to help with maths teacher training. They asked for an example of a "diverse mathematician". I gave Emmy Neother, a Jewish woman expelled from her position in Nazy Germany in the 30s.

— Izzy Posen (@PosenIzzy) July 20, 2022

The interviewer said, "she's white and we asked for someone who is diverse." So I said, I don't think that a Jew in Nazi Germany in the 30s is not diverse. Her response was, "You did say Germany, which is a white country, and your pupils might not know about the holocaust."

— Izzy Posen (@PosenIzzy) July 20, 2022

The interviewer said, "she's white and we asked for someone who is diverse." So I said, I don't think that a Jew in Nazi Germany in the 30s is not diverse. Her response was, "You did say Germany, which is a white country, and your pupils might not know about the holocaust."

— Izzy Posen (@PosenIzzy) July 20, 2022

people are getting mad about this and his it sounds like the interviewer's response sounds crass - but is this just an issue of word choice, like if the interviewer had said 'non-white' instead of 'diverse' would that have been OK? I get the impression that the people on twitter who are angry about this would still not think that was OK, that framing anything in terms of white/non-white is implicitly anti-semitic and erases jewish experiences of racism - but presumably the scholarship people are asking this because there are a disproportionately low number of high-profile non-white mathematicians and there is concern that this discourages non-white pupils so teachers should demonstrate knowledge of non-white mathematicians to counteract this, which seems legitimate?

He could have asked them to clarify what they meant by diverse, but Twitter clout is a powerful drug

seems like a clusterfuck all round tbh. if they'd said non-white they would look a bit better but it would still be problematic - like what does "white" mean in nazi germany, how relevant is it that she seems obviously white to people now, why is this discipline still so white anyway, also the whole "white country" can of worms, problems with tokenism, top-down diversity, essentialism... on top of the inevitable bad faith actors piling in on

uncomfortable resonance with the recent (totally manufactured) "did anne frank have white privilege" shitshow the other week

it is a genuine crisis how concern about antisemitism is repeatedly being equated (by "both sides" or whatever) with whiteness/europe & almost necessarily opposed to or in competition with concern about antiblack/islamophobic/other colonial racism in a way that makes all of these problems worse but idk the solution other than the kind of mutual education that requires overcoming a lot of entrenchment at this point

xp
Yeah the tweeter is being obtuse, but this is a good example of why you shouldn't use "diverse" to describe individuals, rather than something more precise like "a mathematician of color" (I would avoid "non-white") if that's specifically what you want to hear about.

The larger problem is conceiving of diversity and representation as an exercise in box ticking. Hard to weigh in on a one-sided anecdote, but it does sound to me like the interviewer isn't actually invested in "diversity" (and the history of race & racism) since I can think of better responses that acknowledged what Posen was saying but still prompted him to answer the desired q. So I don't think it's *just* a word choice problem; I see a lack of genuine commitment, assuming this is a faithful account of the exchange.

Jews would often not have been considered white in the 1930s, if it helps

Also, obviously (unless it isn't), there are many Jews of colour

I assume people don't use the term "non-white" because it centers whiteness

Either way the question is poorly phrased and the tweeter's reportage is dubious

it is a genuine crisis how concern about antisemitism is repeatedly being equated (by "both sides" or whatever) with whiteness/europe & almost necessarily opposed to or in competition with concern about antiblack/islamophobic/other colonial racism

yes, this is v well put

I've no clue how academia has codified diversity, but the US corporate world seems to have adopted an ad hoc rubric that, while flawed and pointedly avoidant of history, at least provides a checklist from HR

My impression is that, for a given group, would an individual be seen as "other" for that group or break some construct of homogeneity, perceived or actual, at this point in time. It's weighted toward positive inclusion, where historical exclusion might be a basis for deeming someone as adding diversity to a group but only if that person would still be a minority (seen as "other") at this time

also, that interview sounds like it was terrible

It seems clear to me that the person was just asking "Can you give me a mathematician from an under-represented ethnic/racial minority" and wouldn't just say that for some reason. If they had said "mathematician of color" that would include East Asian and Indian, which I don't think are underrepresented. Being a female mathematician in the 1930s seems underrepresented regardless of being Jewish, but that wasn't the point here. The point was pretty clearly that black and latino and perhaps other ethnic minority students don't see enough mathematicians like themselves. So the interviewer phrased it in a stupid way, but at some point it starts to feel obtuse to go down this rabbit hole of the positioning of antisemitism in relation to other ethnic/religious/cultural discrimination because there is no problem whatsoever with Jewish representation in math.

When you get beyond that narrow context, I agree that there is a kind of crisis in constructs of racism that impacts antisemitism and also goes beyond it (e.g. the position of Asians as "white adjacent" yet experiencing racial violence at high rates, including from other minorities). But I don't really think that was at play here, this was literally just a dumb way of asking "What is your level of awareness of black and latino mathematicians so you can present them to students in a way that makes them feel represented in a field where they are not historically well represented."

If they had said "mathematician of color" that would include East Asian and Indian

ime there isn't a consensus on whether that is true or not, so you're right that wouldn't have been a good choice either. You're also right that explaining why you're asking the question is key to getting better answers

that's assuming the interviewer understands why they're asking the question

it's increasingly obvious that a lot of people on the right are using antisemitism as a proxy for anti-white and it's really hard to know how to respond sensitively and effectively to this

europe and its nation states are constitutively antisemitic - both european (/christian/white) identity and european national identities constructed themselves significantly through their relations with european history's primary internal other - but somehow they've managed to flip the script and the culture responsible for the holocaust now professes its unique love for jews and israel and claims anti-antisemitism as constitutive to their nation/culture *while maintaining* their actual constitutive antisemitic logics and weaponising all the old tropes against the "new antisemites" (who are usually not white and *always* portrayed as either disloyal or alien to the nation/culture), while simultaneously ramping up all the classical (proto-)fascist dogwhistles about finance and marxism and degeneracy with hardly any pushback

it's particularly disgusting in germany where the whole "we've learnt our lesson" bullshit is constantly being weaponised to exclude allegedly bigoted minorities (including/especially jews) from society, particularly viciously if they express any reservations about either israeli policy or the new tolerant germany/europe (these things get equated conceptually in a weird probably telling way) or dare to suggest that nazism and colonialism have any connection whatsoever

as someone with nazi ancestry I really need to tread more carefully than I probably am here but I've been repeatedly told I need to excuse blatant anti-black and anti-arab racism because of this which seems fucked up in a way I can't really respond to. I don't pretend to understand these things and idk if any of this makes any sense but fuck britain and germany and europe and their smug hypocrisy and violence on this issue it's truly repulsive

booming post. it's such an enraging phenomenon.

Assumed the revive was going to be about Lenny Dykstra and it's somehow even worse, worse than Lenny Dykstra, wow

I mean he's an example of the whole thing

this may seem minor or obscure but I was recently in the unterlinden museum in colmar (france) and one of the artworks was "le diable au juif" https://webmuseo.com/ws/musee-unterlinden/app/collection/record/637 - unremarkable stuff as far as medieval bigotry goes but as presented without any commentary it bothered me a lot especially when many other pieces had mini-essays attached. nearby was a display of items hidden by jewish people circa the black death pogroms which suggests they may have been trying to show a connection but it was so unclear even to someone who knew a little about those events that it may just have been about the chronology (the brief text about those items did mention pogroms but not jews or antisemitism, which maybe goes without saying but felt a little odd to me)

is it worth contacting the museum over this (e.g. provide more context or take it down)? am making a lot of very little here? I know this stuff is ubiquitous in medieval art and I could find similar or worse examples in 1000s of european museums and churches. I'm not sure about the ethics of displaying such works at all but the lack of contextualisation left a bad taste. I can't tell whether or not I'm overreacting here

very reasonable to demand context imo

Symsym otm. Speaking as someone who works at a museum and sometimes has to take part in conversations with curators and other stakeholders around how to frame potentially controversial works, you should absolutely reach out and demand context.

CORRECTED pic.twitter.com/jjRBr9aNI6

— horse powder (@JuliusIrvington) September 30, 2022

correction is correct

oof

Think I'm gonna go with yes?

I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda pic.twitter.com/0xka0D5k50

— ye (@kanyewest) October 9, 2022

Can't believe Instagram took his hateful BS down but Twitter leaves it up.

I doubt anyone is surprised by now, just extremely sad and tired

I usually assume Instagram is about the bottom of corporate social media but I guess it's all just a melange of sugar-coated sewage.

The tweet is down afaict - ilx embeds preserve tweets after they’re deleted but when I clicked thru a couple of hours ago I got “this tweet violated Twitter rules”

Would hate to have Kanye go death con on us

death con 3 you mean.

maybe he was just trying to be funny and meant to write def comedy jam.

ilx embeds preserve tweets after they’re deleted

Didn't realize that thanks. I think I had seen it on Twitter shortly before that but maybe not, anyway it's gone now.

Read that as "ilx embeds perverse tweets after they’re deleted" and was nodding my head in agreement vigorously...

Pretty depressing how many news organs are referring to the tweet above as "allegedly" or "purportedly" anti-Semitic. Like, what does he have to do before you don't just call it antisemitism??

That’s just shitty American news media in general. There has to be the feigned attempt at distance, they just can’t come out and make a bluntly declarative sentence

Depressing sure but I think it’s more because all reporting has to be clickbait now rather than them trying to launder Kanye’s views

It’s not uncommon to see the occasional user name with (eighty-eight) in it while gaming, I try to report them when I catch them. But I was playing CoD and it seems like they’re in overdrive right now, there are so many. I just played a game with one user named J1ll K3ws, without the numbers but with (eighty-eight) attached. It’s like the game platforms just don’t care at all.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSsowgBEXUusp18d4UkYZE4FT2ITyJOxxesUg&usqp=CAU

speaking of which, i saw these cars parked down the road from me, tell me the number and the company's initials being "SS" is a coincidence

(i mean it could be, the 88 thing is law enforcement code too, but also what the fuck)

NEW: A 14-year-old boy was arrested at his home in Oxford, Michigan - the same town where a teen boy carried out a mass school shooting in 2021 - after he posted photos of handguns on social media and threatened to kill Jewish people at a recreation center.https://t.co/g74ycmZVxL

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 15, 2022

Yeah wtf.

Idk about eighty eight and law enforcement but it is definitely widely recognized as code for ((fashie)). That company in the pic looks hella sus no doubt.

Not to be all Capn Save-an-88, but here is the founder of that security company on the news in the wake of the Poway synagogue shooting. In public at least, he speaks in opposition to antisemitism and hate.

https://www.necn.com/multimedia/safety-and-security-in-wake-of-synagogue-shooting_necn/235098/

I always get a little thrown when I see ads for 88 Rising, which is an Asian-owned music company.

Eights are very good luck in ESEA cultures.

There's a lot going on with this van from Christchurch. I used to see it around sometimes, I vaguely recognised some of the messages such as the 88 but at the time had no idea about the 14 or the black sun logo. I believe the word beneficial also has some meaning but I can't remember right now.

https://i.imgur.com/rJwgUXJ.jpeg" class="noborder">

The racist POS behind this was jailed for a few months for sharing videos of the mosque shootings.

https://i.imgur.com/rJwgUXJ.jpeg

Wtf

We also know Henry Ford was an anti-semite, but this has some details about the extent of it that I didn't know: https://johnganz.substack.com/p/henry-fords-empire-of-lies

Ohio Senate candidate Michele Reynolds used the phrase "Jew you down" in a book she wrote and said Jews have a reputation for "not wasting resources."

In a statement, her campaign said the statement came out of respect for Jews' reputation for "solid money principles." pic.twitter.com/SL4tGjv8Bb

— Jake Zuckerman (@jake_zuckerman) October 20, 2022

The gentiles are trying to sell us Hanukkah gnomes now, so I decided to look into the history of gnomes to see if it's antisemitic....and OF COURSE it is, so here's a thread about why you should not buy these for your Jewish friends: 1/? pic.twitter.com/qQDfezmHrJ

— Sim Kern (@sim_kern) December 12, 2022