I have left out the exact social media platform this happened on,
and the genders of all involved, so that the persons involved
would be a bit harder to track.
A First Nation person from Canada -
one that for many years has posted on social media
about missing First Nation women, crowdfunders
to help bury First Nation people with
their grieving families left in crushing poverty
by the Canadian, white European state, and posted
about the plight of indigenous and oppressed across
the world, including occupied Palestine - was
arguing with two Canadians, one apparently Christian,
the other self-identifying as Jewish, about indigenous
people in Canada and Palestine and Israel,
and in that exchange the First Nation
person wrote in anger that Jews are not suffering
prejudice in Canada.
Jews, of course, are suffering prejudice in Canada,
and those two Canadians combined to attack him,
accusing him of antisemitism, and when he apologized,
wrote what probably would have been enough
for those two Canadians if he would have been white,
they didn't relent, but continued to attack him until
he deleted his account.
Here was two very different worlds colliding, one
that didn't understood the other, didn't want to understand
the other, because it didn't have to, because it believed
it could ignore the causes of the anger and force
the other to submit to its view and had it deleted.
And they were right. They could make him submit
to their view of the world, and they could force
him to delete his account, so that calls for information
about missing First Nation women and crowdfunders
for funerals now reach less people,.
I don't think either of those two Canadians
had any second thoughts, any remorse.
They treated the anger of the First Nation person
as something to be eradicated. Understanding,
or any common ground, acceptance of prejudice
towards First Nation people, Jews, and Palestinians
all was out of the question for them.
I spoke with both, the apparent Christian one
(whether of faith or of backgroud) was supremely
calm, just kept repeating "antisemitism", nothing
could excuse even a bit that one sentence
written in anger for them, not 500 years
of colonial history, not genocides, not
crunching poverty, not missing and
murdered First Nation women, not
released white murderers celebrated
by the politicians and the press.
No, they just cared that they had caught
a First Nation person guilty of "antisemitism"
and now it was their duty to extract punishment,
to restore the righteous order, to carry out
the white man's burden.
That I tried to defend the First Nation
person was not "antisemitism" to the Christian
one, but an error, a mistake to be corrected
by firmly pointing out to me where
the "antisemitism" had taken place
and making sure there could be no excuse,
no explanation, no justification, nothing
but eradication and deleting.
The Jewish one claimed to live in fear, that
there would have been armed police outside
their place of worship, and were angry
where the Christian one was a cool machine,
an armoured personnel carrier or a tank,
running over an indigenous person. They were
a berserker in fury, demanding victimhood
for themselves, an unconditional acceptance
that nothing but their view was possible.
In this they were utterly incapable or unwilling
to comprehend that their own anger - which
refused to accept victimhood for First Nation
peoples or Palestinians on an equal level or greater
as their own - could share anything
with the anger of the person they attacked.
Anger that can ignore prejudice against others,
because it's so deeply felt, because it has
been there for an entire life, and enforced
upon by encounters, the society
around, and not formed solely
by oneself out of bitterness and fear.
Nothing, absolutely nothing could explain
or go towards excusing the First Nation
person's anger in the view of this second
Canadian, because to them that was utterly
unjustified anger, anger unexplainable except
as hate of Jews because they are Jews, unlike
their own anger, which to them seemed
to be a pillar driven through the Earth on
which it turned on its axis. Anger that
moved the world.
To me it was privileged anger, anger
of a person who knew they wouldn't have
to try to comprehend or understand because
they could just get the indigenous one
to delete their account, leaving future
messages about missing First Nation women
unsend, leaving future crowdfunding
calls to bury victims of 500 years
of colonialism unsend.
I talked to both, and the Christian Canadian
kept claiming the First Nation person was guilty
of "antisemitism" and nothing else mattered,
and they did that coolly, politely, from a long
emotional distance; having identified
"antisemitism" they had erased it, surgically,
That was only thing that mattered to them -
while the Jewish Canadian in their continued
anger attacked me with the same berserker
fury of indignation. I tried to make them understand
if not accept the anger which they had answered
with anger. They didn't wan't to, to them I were
just another guilty of "antisemitism",
and they blocked me, I who have enough
white privilege so I don't have to delete
my social media accounts, I who have
enough white privilege that people
have to be content with blocking me.
The three of us with white privilege,
a Canadian Christian, a Canadian Jew,
and a Finnish Atheist from Christian
background, still have our accounts
on that social media platform.
The First Nation person from Canada
doesn't, because of 500 years
of colonialism, prejudice and racism.
01.04.2025
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti