I really don’t.
As a Black American, I hear talk all the time in my community about self-ownership, economic Independence, and being represented in every industry. We constantly promote the idea of Black Excellence and Black Power. We love to encourage our brothers and sisters to ‘buy Black.’ We love the tenets that Kwanzaa highlights; particularly the three concurrent days, Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), and Ujamaa (cooperative economics). I grew up watching many of the people I looked up to try and emulate these tenets especially. It was always inspiring as it was galvanizing for me.
But what I don’t get is when those of us in the Black American community look at Jews sideways for having that very type of success.
I keep hearing things like “what’s wrong with saying Jews are all over Hollywood? Is it not true? It’s just a fact!”
Sure, there are a lot of Jews in the film (and music) industry. My question to anyone honest enough to have an adult conversation is ‘so what?’ What is your reason for pointing that out? What is your reason for compiling a list of every Jew who owns major companies and posting it on your instagram page? What is the reason for reiterating the ‘Jewishness’ of Hollywood in a standup comedy routine? There has to be a reason. What is it?
If the reason is to point out that nefarious doings within these industries is a Jewish conspiracy, that has to be the oldest racist trick in the book.
And this is what I just don’t get. All we have to do is replace the word ‘Jew’ with another group of people, and suddenly, everyone can clearly see how stupid and wrong this point of view is. It would be tantamount to saying the following:
Because Chicago sees so much Black gang violence in three months than most cities in America see in a whole year, the root of the problem is ‘the Blacks.’
Because Black men are a majority in the NBA, and some of those Black men have been exposed for sexually assaulting women, the problem are ‘the Blacks.’
Because the number 1 victim of hate crimes in the US is the Jews, and the vast majority of the attackers are Black, the root of the problem is ‘the Blacks.’
Is the problem ‘the Blacks,’ or is the problem that there are nefarious actors in any facet of life? The overwhelming majority of Black Americans are not star athletes, involved in gangs, and do not go around beating up Hasidic Jews in the streets. Much like the overwhelming majority of Jews are actually not in Hollywood or the music industry.
Now, one reading the last paragraph may respond by saying “so what?! For such a small population, Jews are disproportionately overrepresented in so many fields.”
My response to that ‘so what’ would be another ‘so what?!’ Such ignorance is hard to reason with, but here we go…
Once upon a time, Jewish Americans, like Black Americans, were not allowed to be a part of mainstream record labels. Jewish Americans, like Black Americans, were not allowed in the film industry. What happened in those particular industries is that Jews started their own companies, and signed fellow Jews, as well as Blacks. Some of these companies grew to become the institutions we see today. These aren’t conspiracies to take over the world. These are empires born from discrimination and racism.
Had Blacks and Jews been allowed in these spaces pre-1930s, would they have built such empires? We’ll never know now, but what I do know is this:
Since I was a little kid, I’ve heard much talk of us, Black people, taking control of our collective destiny and changing the face of the world. We did that a few times in history; Washington-Rosenwald schools, Black Wall Street, and the Harlem Renaissance being just a few. But in my lifetime, in my personal experience, I often heard a lot of talk about us doing what we continue to see the many Jews doing, which is support each other, help each other move up, and put their community first. We talk about it a lot, especially when racial tensions rise in the US for various reasons, but we largely do not follow through.
Why then, when we see Jews walk our talk, do some of us get suspicious that Jews 'overrepresented’ in different sectors. Don’t we also strive to ‘overrepresent?’ Isn’t it our desire to see ourselves in spaces everywhere? Don’t we want to create our own industries, employ our own people, and be in control of our own destinies? And once we did occupy those spaces in the desired capacity, I’m sure we wouldn’t want people so scrutinizing every imperfection, that the scrutiny of individuals turns into a disdain for Black people altogether.
For lack of a better term, these arguments are that because in Hollywood, there are “a lot of Jews… a lot” as comedian Dave Chapelle said in his Saturday Night Live standup routine, that somehow that translates to a secret Jewish cabal manipulating everything and everyone. This argument is especially weird considering there are plenty of non-Jews who could be easily accused (with good reason in my opinion) of doing that very thing: Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and Ida “you will own nothing and you will like it” Auken just to name three.
The problem with these Jewish conspiracy theories is that there really is an immense amount of evil in our world, and those agents of evil are really out there; Black, White, Italian, Danish, African, Jewish, Chinese, etc. I feel that Dave Chapelle, free as he is to say whatever he wants, had a real opportunity to, in his Dave way, poke fun and expose the ridiculousness in these age old tropes, but instead, he addressed the topics without really addressing them, or worse, gave credence to them.
All that tells me is that there is much work to be done on this front. There is a vacuum that has, for decades, been filled with false doctrine and dangerous rhetoric from false prophets and pimps who aren’t interested in improving anything except their bank accounts. When I’m not doing music, my team and I are contributing to that work.
To my Jewish brothers and sisters, though it may seem like it more than ever, you still aren’t alone. Our forefathers and foremothers have done world-changing work together in the past, and we will continue to do so in the present.
Thank you so much for this excellent analysis of the growing rift between Blacks and Jews. It wasn’t always like this, I’m old enough to know that. I will share your beautifully reasoned and heartfelt words with all my Jewish communities.
Thank you for this