21 June 2011

"As a Jew" explained

The term “asaJew” is a marker of identity politics. It says that I, the speaker, have some special authority to say what I’m going to say because of my identity. Usually identity politics is adopted by people who claim to speak for their collectivity. The “asaJew” says that non-Jews should pay special attention because they are raising an issue which is more easily seen from a Jewish point of view. So an “asa Jew” might say that Jews are able to sense or sniff antisemitism when a non-Jew might have been unaware. Jews might be sensitive to certain attitudes, figures of speech, images, to which a non-Jew might not be.

Jewish anti-Zionists give their identity politics a strange twist. Instead of claiming to represent the opinion of most of their fellow Jews, they mobilize their identity “asaJew” in order to give their oppositional view more legitimacy. They are saying to non-Jews that this or that might seem to them as though it was Antisemitic, but I, the Jew, am happy to reassure you that it isn’t.

But if the thing which the anti-Zionist asa Jew is trying to inoculate against is a thing which most Jews do find troublesome, then they employ another little twist. They claim that their Jewish identity is authentic in some way that most Jews’ identities are inauthentic. So the anti-Zionist "asaJew" may be in a tiny minority but she is claiming that she, nevertheless, is the real Jew. The ethical Jew. The critical Jew. The anti-nationalist Jew. The courageous Jew. The far-sighted Jew. And the other Jews, the herd, are actually not such real Jews; their Jewishness has been subverted by Zionism and Islamophobia and a secular unconcern with Jewish ethics.

There are two possible critiques of the “asaJew” rhetoric. One is the critique of identity politics in general, which says that you should just say what you think to be true, you should present evidence and argument, and hope that people listening will be persuaded by that – those who do this prefer to leave the claims to particular identity-based authority behind.

The other possibility is that somebody might accept that Jews in general, or Jewish communal bodies, for example, might speak with some added legitimacy. This might come from either their particular standpoint or from their claims to represent the collective. So you might think that these ways of speaking “asaJew” are more legitimate than that of the anti-Zionist Jew.

The anti-zionist Jew says “asaJew” in order to turn opinion against the majority of her fellow Jews. She wants to say that because she doesn't find something to be antisemitic, for example, and she is a Jew, and she speaks as a Jew, then they should accept that it isn't antisemitic. Because if a Jew says something isn't antisemitic then it can’t be. Right?

This is a guest post by SlingshotKiller.

12 comments:

SnoopyTheGoon said...

The accepted term for these people here is "AssaJew", which term conveys the essential... er... essence somewhat better, but OK, we wouldn't split hairs, not now.

Pisa said...

"Asa-she-Jew", I have a question. Why do you use "she" when speaking about asaJews?

You missed one particularly irritating characteristic of asaJews. They' see thenselves as saviours and redeemers of the world Jewry, the "good jews". If only all the jews were asaJews, the world would become a much better place, they say. If only all the jews would crawl at their ennemies' feet begging to be punished for the crime of being jews, peace will descend upon the earth and the wolves will help old sheeps cross the meadow.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Have you noticed that I am not the one who has written this, Pisa? I shall pass the question to the writer.

But from knowing him a bit, I guess he done it on purpose to avoid being accused of male chauvinism.

And I agree with your addendum. There is more to be told about AssaJews.

GideonSwort said...

<p><span>I suspect that<span> </span>SlingshotKiller had someone in mind, while formulating this piece. Off-the-bat I can think of two particularly virulent, vociferous, cerebrally impaired she-canines that fit the bill. </span>
</p><p><span>However, this isn’t about gender, this about identity politics. </span>
</p><p><span> </span>
<span>While the esteemed SlingshotKiller uses the term AsaJew, we prefer the term StrawJew.</span></p>

Pisa said...

Oh, I've noticed, Snoopy. I'm carefully reading the poster's name now, and the writer's name too, the labels, the sidebars,  the ads, and all the posts on the site before I post a comment :)  

Pisa said...

StrawJew? Uhm...straw men are usually impaled on sharp pols, are they not? Me like strawJew.

GideonSwort said...

Just to clarify, StrawJew is based on the definition of Stawman. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Dick Stanley said...

If a tree falls in the foret and there's no Jew to observe it, did it, uh... Or something like that.

Dick Stanley said...

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no Jew to observe it....

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Then this tree isn't kosher.

Toby Esterhase said...

I think an asaJew is a Jew who can watch Merchant of Venice and can laugh happily at Portia's cleverness in the final scene.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, it's a good start, I would say. But AssaJews are a bit more complex.