There’s a new essay being passed around by Megan Wachspress on “The ‘New Antisemitism and the Logic of Whiteness.” As one might imagine,* I have thoughts. The essay raises some interesting and useful points; it isn’t bad by any means. But I do think its core hypothesis is not just wrong, but actually backwards.
Wachspress argues that the panic amongst young Jews on campus stems from “the unconscious recognition that American Jews’ contingent whiteness may be threatened if ‘the Jewish state’ becomes a means by which other white people can disavow their own complicity in European colonialism,” and that the Jewish response seeking safety from these emergent campus phenomena represents an effort to “double down” on their White status.
The notion that Israel is “a means by which other white people can disavow complicity” is, I think, an important one. But I don’t think the Jewish response is aptly characterized as an effort to cleave to besieged Whiteness. Jews right now aren’t worried about losing their White status, and they’re certainly not trying to “double down” on it. To the contrary, they’re worried that they’re going to be left holding the bag for Whiteness.
David Schraub is a blogger, lawyer and scholar. He is an associate professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, USA.