Glitterpill Read: Black Power, Jewish Politics
In 2020, I left the nonprofit sector, I started my own independent consulting business. I’m happy to announce that my first research contracts have been able to support my community-building efforts with my group, Glitterpill, while my patrons’ contributions have supported OSINT Tracking and public scholarship. It is how I have been able to remain a public academic and talk about the issues that matter without limiting the range of topics I can discuss. I don’t shy away from the mistakes I’ve made, and I see them all as an opportunity to learn.
As I grow my consulting business and my community, I’ve been thinking about what I hope to continue, and how that diverges from a masculine, Americanist economy.
Outreach with multiracial members of extremist organizations allows me to see where the democratic party has failed to address the needs of their communities, despite continually engaging in the performance of allyship.
As I grow my consulting business, this is a masculinist/capitalist theme that resonates with me today.
Inequitable distribution of wealth. This is never intentional, but more consistently prioritizing and centering the voices of BIPOC scholars, activists and experts will be something I incorporate in my business.
Black and Jewish Relations
A friend of mine and POC began talking more since the BLM protests. We’ve had some fairly heated back and forths, but there are glimmers towards a mutual understanding of each other that give me hope.
Here is our conversation prompted by his post.
Friend: What is it about Black unity and self-sufficiency that has so many people wanting to dissuade us from that ultimate goal?
Me: For white people, it means giving up access to privileges, which they don’t want to acknowledge and go through great lengths to obscure.
They also don’t want to be seen as bad people and connecting to communities means being willing to encounter the fear and pain that white supremacy has caused and is still creating.
Friend: I find it interesting that such positive themes for Black people, which basically is fundamental to any group’s “freedom”, would generate such negative connotations.
Me: It shouldn’t, but it does, because most of white America is not honest with themselves.
They either perform solidarity while doing nothing or ask black communities to appease them of their white guilt.
Openly embrace the lineage of white supremacy to make themselves feel more powerful.
Or police the “bad whites,” in their community who don’t perform activism to their standards as praxis, (typically informed by bad intel), rather than engage with communities who need access to the same privileges they’ve been afforded.
Friend: What’s also interesting, is how nearly all Black leaders who historically have championed Black unity and self-sufficiency have been demonized, murdered, arrested, or discredited by the mainstream media to discourage Black people from seeking those goals
Me: That is true, and as a Jewish person I can acknowledge that we all haven’t been consistently the best allies for each other.
This episode goes really deep into this issue from the perspective of Jews of Color.
I think this is a good first step, but there is a lot more work to be done.
So after this conversation, I re-read Leah Donnella’s article and purchased a book that can further help me along in my own journey.
Maybe it can help you too.
