UK Labour today released the text of the Chakrabarti Inquiry into anti-Semitism (and other forms of racism). I’m trying to think about how to describe it. “Bad” would not be fair – it’s not bad. “Milquetoast” is perhaps the best word for it. Shami Chakrabarti was put in an extraordinarily difficult situation when she was commissioned to lead this inquiry, and did her best not to offend anyone. And I’m not offended, so in that I guess she was successful.
But I am to some degree annoyed at myself that I’m not more annoyed at how small-ball it went. The non-procedural recommendations – “Zio” is a racist epithet, “resist” comparing Israel to the Nazis (is the temptation really that overwhelming?), don’t engage in stereotyping – would be insultingly banal if they did not in fact need to be said. But banality is the order of the day.
Chakrabarti thankfully doesn’t engage in any significant victim-blaming or lecture Jews on how we need to stop making anti-Semitism claims up for our own nefarious ends, so thank God for that. Yet everything in her report is calculated to be assure everyone that this problem is not much of a problem at all. David Hirsh’s reaction is here (his characteristically excellent submission to the inquiry is here), and I think it strikes some important chords. This is a superficial report to a problem with much deeper roots. One does not, upon reading the inquiry, get the sense that there is any true danger to Labour anti-Semitism. Nobody is really that bad, we just sometimes use some overwrought rhetoric in the heat of the moment that we should probably “resist”. Ultimately, I doubt these recommendations will hurt, but I likewise doubt they will do much to help either. The report condemns stereotypes but gives no guidance on how to root them out; it discusses bias but doesn’t even raise the issue that they might be implicit. It speaks broadly about the significant wrong anti-Semitism represents, but it shies away from directly considering anything to be anti-Semitic.
Perhaps most frustratingly, it does not address what to me is the most important issue of all – the epistemic marginalization of Jews and Jewish voices when we complain about anti-Semitism. Any effort to combat anti-Semitism will fail if it is not coupled with a commitment to take seriously allegations of anti-Semitism. The persistent drumbeat that anti-Semitism is a bad faith charge that serious people should not waste their time with is the single greatest barrier to Jewish inclusion in communal conversations. It suggests that we are unreliable narrators of our own experience – delusional at best, liars at worst. If that understanding is accepted, then Jews will never be able to be equal participants in dialogue because everything we say will be preemptively discounted – at least, if it doesn’t accord with the preexisting beliefs of our partners.
The Chakrabarti Inquiry should ideally represent the beginning of the conversation on combatting anti-Semitism, not its end. And judging by how the inquiry was received, well, there is more to be had in this conversation. The unveiling was yet another Corbyn catastrophe – a Jewish Labour MP was chased out the room after being accused of organizing a media conspiracy to get at Corbyn, and Corbyn himself possibly compared Israel to the Islamic State (reports vary on whether he said “Islamic State” or “Islamic states” – his written text suggests he meant the latter, but many people reported hearing the former). Corbyn certainly did nothing to protect his colleague who – in a press conference about anti-Semitism, no less – was victimized by an anti-Semitic trope of the precise sort Chakrabarti identified as being intolerable.
People who don’t take anti-Semitism seriously won’t fight anti-Semitism seriously. I do think Chakrabarti tried and delivered a seriously flawed but nonetheless sincere effort in her report. Jeremy Corbyn has no interest in fighting anti-Semitism, and so we can expect even the meager gains Chakrabarti gave to use to amount to virtually nothing.
via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/295r7Th
Tag: long tags sorry
You don’t think a relationship between two MoC is revolutionary, especially in Hollywood?
Dear 003foxway,
I do.
But what I’ve seen onscreen so far in regards to that is not revolutionary — I don’t feel I’ve been promised anything yet, and given past mainstream film experience, I admit that I remain dubious that it’ll play out that way. I think it goes without saying that I’d be delighted to have my low expectations exceeded, but pessimism is an inferno in my mind at this point.
What is onscreen at this moment is revolutionary in a different way; Rey as a lead is a major win for this sort of movie, and I’d expect in a bias-free world to see her given at least equal time in enthusiasm. I’d also expect to see her represented in the same kind of fan interest, rather than her being the focus of more calculated articles and Finn-Poe gaining a bigger piece of fannish emotional reaction. But that’s not what I’m seeing. From where I’m standing, it looks like gender bias, particularly because the things is: the two brands of excitement can coexist beautifully. Emotional investment in Rey does not take away from emotional investment in Finn or Poe or Finn-and-Poe.
That’s why all I asked was for biases to be noted. To say that any of us exist without gender bias in storytelling would be disingenuous in the extreme. We’ve all been raised on a hundred years of white men on camera and we’re all the product of it still. It is impossible not to be.
urs,
Stiefvater
Why are you asking “all biases to be noted” (by whom, precisely) instead of going after the people who are actually spewing the misogyny?
Why are you asking for “all biases to be noted” and not taking note of your own biases in the way you completely ignore women of color and LGBT people of color in your analysis?
Why should women of color feel more represented by Rey than by Poe or Finn? And where is all the hell-raising and “not good enough” for the lack of women of color in the franchise? (No, Lupita Nyong’o as a CGI alien doesn’t count.)
Why should LGBT people of color be less thrilled about finally having a ship between two people of color that they can actually talk about with more than 3 people?
Why should LGBT women of color prioritize how fandom reacts to Rey above how fandom reacts to Finn and Poe, separately and in a relationship?
When has a slash ship between two men of color ever been popular in fandom?
When have fandom at large and slash fandoms in particular ever been amazing about characters of color, particularly when it comes to ships and romance?
Is the good it does for LGBT fans of color (we do exist) less good because slash fandoms are usually so shitty when it comes to female characters?
Why have you not asked LGBT women of color in Finn/Poe fandom our reasons for shipping Finn/Poe and paying less attention to Rey?
*sips tea*
This is literally why I have never been able to jump on the whole “omg we need a Wonder Woman/Captain Marvel/etc movie!” bandwagon.
I love Rey– clearly. I started that cosplay as soon as the first trailer came out. You can’t take that away from me. But when you get down to it, white women are literally everywhere in media and way too often this brand of film feminism comes at the expense of everyone who is not a white woman– POC men, POC women, LGBTQ POCs. I don’t need that.
Very rarely, if ever, am I going to prioritise a white woman over any POC in media. Especially in Star Wars, of all things. Sorry.
The commentary above is excellent, and I don’t have much to add, but:
I have this issue all the time–am I black first, a woman first, or is “black woman” an identity all its own? Finn and Rey are both great, important characters, but when I watched The Force Awakens, I identified more with Finn than I did with Rey.
A black man choosing to break out of a system of oppression and conditioning to be free resonates to me much more than a white girl who turns out to be the Special Chosen One. Within the context of how terrible 2015 has been for black people, closing out the year watching Finn’s story unfold is incredibly meaningful to me.
Being nerdy, I would have gone to see the movie regardless, but I paid to see it twice, and am considering buying some merchandise, in addition to the BluRay, because John Boyega is one of the main characters.
And it is incredibly frustrating, confusing, and maddening that–as a black woman–being more “emotionally invested” in a black man a little more than a white woman is somehow creating/reinforcing a “gender bias.”
-Mod Q
Thank. You. Say it louder so they can hear you in the back.
This : /
I am, generally, more invested in the stories of characters (male or female) of color than I am in the stories of white women, not because i don’t care about women but because the story I recognize as being *my* story is race based more than it is gender based.
Like, my life experience has shown me that the fact that I am not white is often more important to everyone else than the fact that I am a woman, especially given that my experience of womanhood is ALSO at least partially defined by my race.
(none of this, btw, stops me from interrogating my preferences all the time. but I have really clear character preferences on top of the race and gender axes and it’s all terribly complicated)
friendly reminder that trans people who choose not to update their gender on facebook to include their trans identity are still trans.
friendly reminder that trans people are not “lying” or “deceiving” anyone by selecting “female” or “male” without any qualifiers.
friendly reminder that trans people do not owe anyone a public declaration of their gender or trans-ness.
friendly reminder that trans people’s safety and wellbeing is always the first priority.
welll…bbc are doing a musketeers series so this was slightly predictable
this is all courfeyrac’s fault and hes deffinitly the most into it, plus he canonically owns a sword.
enjolras quite likes the sentiment of the motto but would rather kill the king than be part of his guard (to which the corret response might be, you can be aramis then…sort of)
combeferre is just slightly bemused and a bit worried about how courfeyrac managed to get them all in costume.
fearlessstateofmind backup 