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livMost of the stuff that's in my head is Jewish-related, which isn't surprising because I'm a rabbinic student. But wise people have observed that it's good for community building to post links to other content, so here are a few things I've read recently that are worth reading.
Two pieces on "race science" (note the extremely scary scare quotes). If you're not aware I was a genetics researcher / educator before I was a student rabbi and I gradually came to the realization of how the field is built on absolutely rotten foundations. And the eugenics crap persists today, it's not just that back in the 19th century people didn't know any better.
This is not why I left the field; I'm not naive enough to think the rabbinate is somehow untainted by colonialism! But it is why I am extremely aware that you have to be constantly vigilant against people trying to use sciencey-sounding language to justify racism, or even worse, using genetic technology to improve the master race instead of for the actual benefit of humans. There's a really seductive argument that goes, well, all scientific enquiry should be neutral, there should be no taboo topics. And if someone publishes some data that seems to prove a racist point, it should be countered through peer review and doing experiments to demonstrate the opposite and... Just. No. It isn't sincere, it's deliberate FUD with explicitly racist aims. Scientifically it's been debunked a million times, there is no benefit to being just a little bit racist just in case this time it really turns out that there's a genetic basis to some people being more worthy than others.
Race science really is an invidious conspiracy.
And it's in both the scientific establishment and popular culture. This piece by Millie on Fascist-coded food and consumption as identity is a bit rambly but it makes some really important points. It connects the dots between scientific racism, and some of the anti-public health cult that has become really prominent in the Covid era. Not everybody who is antivax or who campaigns vociferously for their right to breathe dirty, infected air is racist, but a lot of the underlying ideas very much are. I don't need vaccines / I'm not vulnerable to Covid because I have a "healthy lifestyle" or a "strong immune system". These are polite ways of saying, I come from a superior race. I'm thin, I'm white, I'm one of the "fittest" who is going to win at survival.
Eugenics is more than just racism. It's always, always antisemitic as well. And it's actively dangerous to other groups of people who are regarded as racially impure, particularly trans and disabled people. Regardless of whether a person's disability or trans identity is in any way genetic, once you have internalized the idea of a master race, people who strongly differ from the constructed ideal are seen as threatening. I realize this is controversial because it's dogma that racism doesn't harm white people. But it seems pretty clear to me this is all connected. Eugenic thinking, perhaps especially unconscious eugenic thinking, leads directly to discrimination and violence against white Jews, white disabled people, and white trans people, as well as intersectionally harming Jewish, disabled and trans POC.
Here is a really strong piece by May Peterson on trauma, transition, and transgender autonomy. People are upset about medical intervention in puberty for precisely eugenic reasons. There's a "normal" way that people are "supposed" to develop, and it's based on genetics as destiny. Look at all that panic about the possible, completely undocumented but hypothetically possible, effects of medically supported transition on future fertility, while at the same time many countries still legally require trans people to be sterilized before they can be legally registered as their target gender.
Alice Wong is, as always, brilliant. I can't recommend enough her piece on Disability, pleasure and ageing. It's both deeply personal (including explicit details of her sexuality as a disabled woman) and unquestionably political. It reclaims the right to pleasure for people who inhabit bodies that others find "disgusting". That disgust isn't just a random emotion, it's cultivated by a culture that is riddled with eugenic thinking.
And ok, this one is Jewish. But it's also awesome, a conversation between two amazing Jewish scholars and activists, R' Julia Watts Belser, a disabled cis woman, and Joy Ladin, a trans woman who as far as I know doesn't identify as disabled. They're talking about the connections between their work and generally being amazing together, in the same article.
General content note: some of these articles are hosted on sites that you may object to. The article about the race science conspiracy is in the Guardian. Millie on Fascist-coded food is on Substack. Peterson on Medium. And some people are boycotting Jewish cultural organizations which might be suspected of supporting Israel. Your choice whether to give them clicks or not, I'm not the boss of you.
Two pieces on "race science" (note the extremely scary scare quotes). If you're not aware I was a genetics researcher / educator before I was a student rabbi and I gradually came to the realization of how the field is built on absolutely rotten foundations. And the eugenics crap persists today, it's not just that back in the 19th century people didn't know any better.
This is not why I left the field; I'm not naive enough to think the rabbinate is somehow untainted by colonialism! But it is why I am extremely aware that you have to be constantly vigilant against people trying to use sciencey-sounding language to justify racism, or even worse, using genetic technology to improve the master race instead of for the actual benefit of humans. There's a really seductive argument that goes, well, all scientific enquiry should be neutral, there should be no taboo topics. And if someone publishes some data that seems to prove a racist point, it should be countered through peer review and doing experiments to demonstrate the opposite and... Just. No. It isn't sincere, it's deliberate FUD with explicitly racist aims. Scientifically it's been debunked a million times, there is no benefit to being just a little bit racist just in case this time it really turns out that there's a genetic basis to some people being more worthy than others.
Race science really is an invidious conspiracy.
And it's in both the scientific establishment and popular culture. This piece by Millie on Fascist-coded food and consumption as identity is a bit rambly but it makes some really important points. It connects the dots between scientific racism, and some of the anti-public health cult that has become really prominent in the Covid era. Not everybody who is antivax or who campaigns vociferously for their right to breathe dirty, infected air is racist, but a lot of the underlying ideas very much are. I don't need vaccines / I'm not vulnerable to Covid because I have a "healthy lifestyle" or a "strong immune system". These are polite ways of saying, I come from a superior race. I'm thin, I'm white, I'm one of the "fittest" who is going to win at survival.
Eugenics is more than just racism. It's always, always antisemitic as well. And it's actively dangerous to other groups of people who are regarded as racially impure, particularly trans and disabled people. Regardless of whether a person's disability or trans identity is in any way genetic, once you have internalized the idea of a master race, people who strongly differ from the constructed ideal are seen as threatening. I realize this is controversial because it's dogma that racism doesn't harm white people. But it seems pretty clear to me this is all connected. Eugenic thinking, perhaps especially unconscious eugenic thinking, leads directly to discrimination and violence against white Jews, white disabled people, and white trans people, as well as intersectionally harming Jewish, disabled and trans POC.
Here is a really strong piece by May Peterson on trauma, transition, and transgender autonomy. People are upset about medical intervention in puberty for precisely eugenic reasons. There's a "normal" way that people are "supposed" to develop, and it's based on genetics as destiny. Look at all that panic about the possible, completely undocumented but hypothetically possible, effects of medically supported transition on future fertility, while at the same time many countries still legally require trans people to be sterilized before they can be legally registered as their target gender.
Alice Wong is, as always, brilliant. I can't recommend enough her piece on Disability, pleasure and ageing. It's both deeply personal (including explicit details of her sexuality as a disabled woman) and unquestionably political. It reclaims the right to pleasure for people who inhabit bodies that others find "disgusting". That disgust isn't just a random emotion, it's cultivated by a culture that is riddled with eugenic thinking.
And ok, this one is Jewish. But it's also awesome, a conversation between two amazing Jewish scholars and activists, R' Julia Watts Belser, a disabled cis woman, and Joy Ladin, a trans woman who as far as I know doesn't identify as disabled. They're talking about the connections between their work and generally being amazing together, in the same article.
General content note: some of these articles are hosted on sites that you may object to. The article about the race science conspiracy is in the Guardian. Millie on Fascist-coded food is on Substack. Peterson on Medium. And some people are boycotting Jewish cultural organizations which might be suspected of supporting Israel. Your choice whether to give them clicks or not, I'm not the boss of you.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-11-04 06:24 am (UTC)All of the crimes done due to racism are somehow now societally acceptable, if done to an "acceptable" target, and it never ever ever stops at race. Everyone suffers moral injuries when anyone around them does those crimes, and some people are injured more materially.
I'm white. Nobody using the definitions of my social circles would disagree -- I am very light skinned, my hair is 2c or 3a, my eyelids are hooded but definitely double, my eyes are round. But how far back in my family tree is that one Black ancestor that my uncle makes racist jokes about? Is it far enough away that the forces of violent racism in the US would say "nah, that's fine", or ... not? My daughter is Asian. One of my partners is biracial. There are at least two Black authors where teenage me thought "He looks exactly like my dad, except for skin color." Where did the [Lunatic] family nose come from? (There's a particular photo of my grandparents surrounded by family, where you can tell who is a genetic relative to Grandpa and who isn't by looking at noses.)
But mostly -- if I accept a society where race is used as an excuse to do violence and theft, then I am complicit, and that is a moral injury even if I never become a target.