Module 2 Blog Post

Part 1: Reflections on race as a social construct

1a. This week in my personal life I have had multiple experiences and conversations that have forced me look at my own racism straight on and sit in my discomfort as I learn about how my behaviors can be problematic. This has made it really difficult to identify a growth edge between modules in this class because there is been so much intake of information this week that I’m not sure where my personal experiences end and course material begins. I spent 12 hours on Tuesday and 6 hours on Wednesday engaged in conversations with black and biracial people, all from wildly different backgrounds spread out all across the country (and some from abroad), listening to and learning about their experiences. It forced me to take full stock of my problematic white savior complex, which I have been actively chipping away at over the years, but there is always more work to do and getting complacent only leads to making mistakes like I did earlier this week.

Throughout my conversations this week, a black friend mentioned that she believes in reverse racism – that black people can be racist towards white people. I know this to be untrue, as racism is contingent on oppression and power paradigms. White people are not oppressed by black people, therefore they cannot experience racism from black people. They can experience prejudice, but not racism. During this conversation with my black friend who believes the prejudice about whites she sees amongst blacks is racism, someone else mentioned all of the Asians she knows are racist towards blacks and Mexicans and asked how that could be possible because they are all minorities oppressed by whites. I didn’t have a fully cohesive response until I watched The Power of an Illusion (2003) documentary segments this week, specifically the section that discussed how oppression becomes worse as skin tones get darker. The lighter the skin tone, the higher position in the power hierarchy. Based on this, white people can hold racist views towards any minority oppressed by white culture. Some parts of Asia have people with much lighter skin tones than others and they are all lighter than most black people. I think this was probably the most salient piece of information this week, as it helped a lot of my other experiences and questions click into place.

1b. One thing I noticed about myself is that some of my implicit bias towards black people stems from the frustration of watching my white liberal friends be the first to jump at the chance to be an ally to black people in America but they are also the first to jump at criticizing Jews in America. I was recently called racist for calling out antisemitism amongst a group of black people and told that it is not my place, as a white woman – even though I’m Jewish – to criticize bigotry in the black community. I am extremely conflicted about how I feel about this situation, as it has been instilled in me since I can remember that, as a Jew, it is my duty and responsibility to call out antisemitism whenever and wherever I see it.

Because of this, one of the lines from the documentary (The Power of an Illusion, 2003) that stood out to me was about the black journalist who, in response to the lynching of Leo Frank, wrote: “Is the Jew a white man?” Obviously, most American Jews benefit from white privilege and there is not systemic antisemitism in this country, at least not to nearly the same level as systemic racism, and for those reasons the plight of Jews is not comparable to the plight of blacks. However, Jews were banned from many of the same institutions, business, and clubs as black people and are hunted and targeting in similar ways. According to the FBI’s hate crimes statistics (2018) – which are not the most reliable because it doesn’t count crimes that are unreported and precincts that don’t report their rates – 0.005% of Black Americans were victims of hate crimes and 0.09% of American Jews were victims of hate crimes. These percentages are a bit misleading, though, because there are 44 million black people in the United States and 1 million Jews, so even though the percentage is higher for Jews, the actual people count is much higher for blacks.

For me, this connected directly to the fact that race is a social construct (The Power of an Illusion, 2003). Black people face hate crimes due to the color of their skin and the biases connected to that. Jews, who are usually perceived as white, face similar hate crimes rooted in bias. Racism, and the way we discuss race, is based in bias rather than anything concrete or biological.

1c. On the first 50 questions, my score was 200 out of a possible 250. With Dr. Hita’s additional 9 questions, my score went up to 221 out of a possible 295. There were a lot of questions in the survey that were expected, such as questions about how the color of my skin affects others’ perceptions of me and how I am treated by them. In that regard, I know I am white and benefit from the privilege of having white skin.

There were some questions, though, that I had to really think more deeply about. There were some questions that my initial reaction was to mark as a lower number, but then I realized that was stemming from gender rather than race/culture, so I switched the lens through which I was looking at it and the number I chose became higher. Then there were certain questions where I switched “race” for “culture” and the number score became a lot lower.

For instance, the questions about moving to a neighborhood that I wanted to live in and where I could afford to rent or buy housing, I scored a 5. But the next question was about whether or not I could be sure that my neighbors would be neutral or pleasant towards me, which I scored a 3. This decision to score that one so low came directly from my experiences being shunned and bullied by neighbors and peers for being Jewish.

The question about having to educate my children about being aware of systemic racism made me think of how I was recently discussing children with an ex-partner. He is extremely anti-religion and wanted no religion in our home, which I was okay with, but made it very clear that my future children will need to be raised in the Jewish culture and given comprehensive education on Jewish culture because whether or not they practice the religion, they will still be targets of antisemitism simply because of their bloodline.

Of the first 50 questions, the only one that I scored a 1 was “I am never asked to speak for all of the people of my [cultural] group.” Growing up, I was the not only the only Jew in my class, I was the only Jew in my entire school. When we reached the Holocaust segment of history classes (which generally only spanned a day or two), I was often asked to essentially teach the segment myself. By 8th grade I was fed up with it and when my teacher said, “Sarah, would you like to come up and talk about this?” I responded with the detention-earning reply of, “Why? I wasn’t there.”

In Dr. Hita’s additional questions, I found that I scored them much lower. For instance, I only ever learned about the positive accomplishments of Jews who died for being Jewish, like Anne Frank. I can’t remember a single important Jewish figure we learned about for any other reason than that they were Jewish and persecuted for it. I can count my Jewish professors on one hand, but I have trouble keeping track of my professors who have made antisemitic comments, either in lectures or directly to me.

As for my personal and professional trajectory, my Jewish culture and ethnicity is easy to hide, tucked away behind my white privilege. My skin color will never make my life harder or put me in danger. If I need to hide my culture for my own safety, which has happened, it’s fairly simple to do. In 2017 I spent Christmas at a homestay with a family in Germany. It wasn’t until I had already been there for a full day that I realized this family harbored certain antisemitic beliefs. I was still planning to stay for another two days so I made the decision to take off my Jewish star necklace and not mention the fact that I’m Jewish. They asked me about my family’s Christmas traditions, and I felt more comfortable sewing together stories from the Christmases I’ve spent with friends’ families than telling the truth. I am lucky that I am able to hide my ethnicity in this way.

As for a professional example, I am in the process of becoming a certified sex educator and I am growing a following on instagram, where I am building a platform focused on sex education. I have been partnering with some adult toy companies and one refused to work with me because my username is ‘sarahjakethejew.’ Additionally, I have a MFA in creative writing and my thesis advisor refused to let me use a Hebrew name for my main character because he didn’t want to see “any mention of those people.” I’m sure I will experience more situations like this moving forward, but none of these incidents have put my life in danger, so while they suck and are wholly not okay, they are survivable and just means I will find other people to work with.

Part 2: Learning about critical scholarship

2a. Research is meant to expand on what we already know and learn new things entirely based on questions that have either never been definitively answered or have answers that need to be supported. Research is for anyone who wants to learn more about a specific topic, situation, event, group, etc.

2b. I can’t remember a single Research Methods class that explicitly mentioned activist methodologies or intersectional research, but all but one of my Research Methods classes has also been a Statistics class taught by statisticians. I think it might be left out because, for many statisticians, the numbers don’t care about intersectionality. In my one Research Methods class that was only focused on research methods rather than statistics, the closest the professor got to discussing intersectionality was to pay close attention to sample demographics and acknowledge when the sample is not diverse, meaning the results will be specific to that demographic.

2c. My professional goals are to go on to become a LMFT and then, eventually, someday in the (very) distant future, I want to get a PhD and research either fetishism in general or pedophilia through the lenses of fetishism and addiction. I’ve always envisioned the study of fetishism to be performed alongside a neuroscientist and learning where in the brain fetishism exists as well as, from a psychology perspective, what leads to the formation of fetishes. As for the research into pedophilia through the lenses of fetishism and addiction, I imagined working with child predators on rehabilitation techniques in the same way we have rehab for alcoholics or drug addicts: whether or not learning coping mechanisms and building the strength of willpower can lead to child predators being “clean” and becoming productive members of society again.

Reading the article from Cole (2009) made me realize that representations of fetishes in popular culture and other mainstream channels is generally only within middle class or upper class white males, as well as the occasional Asian man who is presented as “creepy,” which has its own problematic racist connotations. As for similar representations of child predators, it is also generally middle class and upper class white males. Going through the three questions presented by Cole, I wondered how differently the current research on the topics mentioned above would differ if there was a conscious effort to examine subjects from an intersectional perspective, and that I have a responsibility to bring intersectionality to these studies when I (eventually) get there, but also as a consumer of information and research between then and now.

References*

Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American Psychologist, 64(3): 170-180. doi: 10.1037/a0014564

Herbes-Sommers, C., Strain, T. H., & Smith, L. (Directors). (2003). Race: The power of an illusion [Documentary series]. Public Broadcasting Service.

U.S Department of Justice. (2018). Hate crime statistics. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics

*I can’t do hanging indents on squarespace.