Not His Choice

Cultural Appropriation

There is a “modern” phrase in use today: “cultural appropriation”.   The definition is:

“The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society” (Oxford Languages).

It’s actually pretty simple.  The idea is that different groups have the right to control how the symbols, practices and customs of their people are used.  Here in the United States, the most obvious example is the recent controversy over the names of sports teams.  The Cleveland Indians are now the Guardians, and the Washington Redskins are the Commanders.  Both teams stepped away from “appropriating” Native American symbols and cultures.  (By the way, the Kansas City Chiefs remain firm in their stance, as do the Atlanta Braves).

Even at the High School level, my former employer went to great lengths to distance the Watkins Warriors from Native Americans.  The school “teepee” hides in storage, and “Willy the Warrior” disappeared from the scene.  School symbology is “scrubbed” for cultural appropriateness.  The old Warrior head symbol is now crossed out (literally), replaced by a “geometric figure”.  There’s even a whole School District “branding policy”.

Woke

One portion of our polarized Nation derides all of this as “woke”.  That’s the same portion that believes that statues to those that rebelled against the United States in the Civil War should be “protected history”. They name Army bases for defeated Confederate Generals:  Lee, Bragg, Pickett, Hood, and AP Hill.  Those same folks are “scrubbing” the government for “woke” references.  The USNS (US Naval Ship) Harvey Milk, named after the gay San Francisco city councilman assassinated in office, will soon be renamed.  Even the USNS John L Lewis is under scrutiny, as if he wasn’t a “true hero” of America.

So I have a “beef” about another item in cultural appropriation.  My issue is with the term:  anti-Semitic.  Anti-Semitism is to be against Jewish people, and it’s been around for thousands of years.  Certainly the history of Europe is full of anti-Jewishness, from the ghettoes of the Middle Ages, to the Russian “Pale”,  and through the 20^th Century.  There was nothing more anti-Semitic than the attempt by Hitler to erase Jews from the earth during World War II.  The extermination camps managed to kill off 6 million.  

But anti-Semitism wasn’t “just” a Nazi thing.  Pretty much every European nation has had its share of anti-Jewish laws, regulations, and social division.  And the United States played its part as well.  Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company fame, spread anti-Semitic literature throughout the Nation, and even the world.  In fact, his campaign against Jews was quoted by the Nazis in the 1920’s and 30’s.  Even the now “woke” Ivy League universities once had strict limits on the number of Jews admitted.

Christian Right

And there was nothing more anti-Semitic than the Ku Klux Klan.  They used Christian symbology as part of their ongoing campaign against many minorities, Jews included.  That continues through the KKK’s successors, like the Proud Boys, the III Percenters and other current Nationalist militant groups.  And non-KKK Christians in the United States have a long history of anti-Semitism as well.  

So it is with deep surprise that I find those supported by QAnon followers and Christian Nationalists are now calling statements against the Trump policy of absolute loyalty to Benjamin Netanyahu’s  Israeli war actions as “anti-Semitic”.  As my Mother would say; “That’s the pot calling the kettle black”. (And that too might be culturally inappropriate in this day and age).  

Anti-Netanyahu

Anti-Semitism and being against the Netanyahu wars are not the same.  If they were, than almost half of the Jewish population of Israel would be “anti-Semitic”.   It’s more than possible to be a Proud American and opposed to the current Administration.  And it’s just as possible to be Jewish and against Israel’s current policy in Gaza and against “tickling the dragon’s tail” of regional nuclear conflict against Iran; without being anti-Semitic.  In fact many Jews, in Israel, in the United States, and in the world, are appalled with the actions of the Israeli Armed Forces .

But, that’s what the Trump Administration is “appropriating”.  They are making the decision about who is anti-Semitic and who is not; based on support for Trump’s actions.   It’s not that “all Jews” are against Trump, or against Netanyahu.  Many Jews are conflicted about both leaders. And traditional Jewish organizations like the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, usually considered “woke”, are standing  firmly with current Israeli actions.   

But surely it’s up to Jewish people themselves to determine who is anti-Semitic, and who is not. Donald Trump shouldn’t get to “culturally appropriate” that decision.  

It’s not his choice.