Posted by Alexander Jerri
Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.
Throughout the 400 years since it emerged, capitalism has believed it cannot exist without maintaining deadly domination of black bodies. And it’s been molding social discussion to promote this belief. Capitalist power derives from the mistrust of nature and has used black bodies as the anthropomorphic depiction of nature’s wild untrustworthiness. First, we had to make the Africans into our slaves because otherwise they wouldn’t become Christian. Clearly, if left in their own land, worshiping terrifying animistic spirits, or some crazy thing called “Allah,” they would eventually be overwhelmed by disease, poverty, and the pests of the natural world, a world which was itself not to be trusted. It was for their own protection.
Slavery in the United States was eventually outlawed, except when imposed on criminals, so black people were shaped in the propaganda story into basic, natural criminals. To prevent them from enjoying the opportunities of freedom, the dominant society criminalized their presence among white citizens, even to the point of policing the flow of their genes through Jim Crow laws. Eventually the Jim Crow system was defeated by appeals to society’s conscience, rather than its fear. Losing battle after subsequent battle of conscience, white cruelty has finally settled on police as the main lethal army, and prisons as the main segregating tool, safeguarding society against scary nature in the form of the black person.
For centuries before the advent of capitalism, most of civilization was convinced by rulers that it couldn’t survive without dominating women and the poor. In many similar ways to how black people came to be used, women, poor people, and nomadic peoples were seen as the main reflections of untrustworthy nature, until capitalism moved the imposition of its harshest propaganda of social mistrust onto the black body.
What has never changed during this multi-millennial propaganda blitz is that it’s always been best for the elite if we fear each other. It’s great, especially for men, if we buy into the fear of nature by distrusting woman. It’s great, especially for those who have an obscene amount of wealth, if we buy into the fear of nature in the guise of poor people. It’s great for those who profit, or believe they do, from the ownership of private property if... read more
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.
Dateline, about 2 weeks ago. The subject of the email was: “I.Am.Over.This.Thing.And.I.Want.My.Life.Back.How.About.You?” It came from a temple advertising itself as, “An emerging community for the Jew-ishly curious in Venice, CA.”
I know, I know, but they have as much right to express their feelings as anyone else. Remember, this was before the protests, before George Floyd was murdered, even before Ahmaud Arbery was ambushed and killed for jogging while black. So she’s talking about the pandemic and lockdown, nothing else. But we’ll be looking at it with perfect hindsight. The body of the message expounded,
This is a care email. To state it plainly: I reserve the right to say “I am not OK.” And I’m not. This has been going on too long, the loss is more than my small heart can bare [sic], and with no end in sight. I hold space for all of my flaws, uglies and rough edges to say, “I hate this.”
It feels good to let it all out. It feels good to admit that my life isn’t “Awesome.” It feels great to acknowledge just how great this isn’t. That’s about all that’s great.
And you? Let's hear it! This Friday night (TOMORROW!). [The] Temple creates a forum to SHARE OUR TRUTHS. I personally invite you into our [Zoom Sanctuary] during our Creative and Musically Driven Shabbat Take Me Higher Services. Throughout the service, one at a time, we will be invited to share a public check in. I want to hear, in real time, how you are doing. And I will ask you to do this in front of a personally chosen background image that expresses creatively how you are doing. The photo above is a double rainbow on the first day of Quarantine (with my sleeping daughter; the Gold(a) at the end of the rainbow [I did not make that up. – jd]. Our minute or two together will give you the chance to express yourself, let us know why you chose that image and really just say HOW YOU ARE doing.
Quarantine Shabbat: such-and-such date and time, streaming on such-and- suchtemple.org/live and Facebook Live ...
...Wishing you Health, Sending you Care, and Holding Space for the Grief, Pain, Loss and Sorrow.
It's Real.
Love,
[The] Rabbi [on whom, allegedly, the recurring female rabbi character played by Kathryn Hahn on Transparent was based]
I had a visceral, if not vicious, reaction to this... read more
