Chan eil an Gàidhlig agam ma nas leòir…
Is there something going on in the Gaeltacht that I don’t know about? Are the local Gaels stockpiling weapons and ammo in bunkers? Is GME running summer insurrectionist training camps? Are there plans to plant bombs south of the border?
Because so far as I know, all anybody wants from Scottish nationalism is the right not to be under a government that is constantly elected by the English via their overwhelming numerical superiority, and which consistently fails to reflect the values Scottish people vote for, like staying in the E.U. and maintaining Scotland’s commitment to taking in refugees and immigrants.
Exactly which of those values can’t she see herself reflected in?
And she speaks English as well, the language of those who colonized half the known world (we helped them, yes, haven’t forgotten). English, French and Spanish together have imposed themselves on how much of the world? And are spoken by how many white people in Europe and the Americas? With Britain (ie England) in We-don’t-want-no-more-refugees-and-immigrants (see also Brexit) mode and America currently melting down and riding the slippery slope to failed democracy and either a white-supremacist lite rebellion or 4 more years of pandering to it’s base, does she truly feel comfortable with the current English-speaking values? Cause I don’t. Yet here I am, speaking English. Is it my ethnic language? No…well, sort of but people would think I was taking the piss if I started speaking Scots.It’s “my language” because I grew up speaking it and I’m fluent. End of story.
I would truly love to know what, exactly, Gaels have been saying to her to make her so uncomfortable with their value system. Not a vague reference to a “dangerous nationalism that breeds prejudice”. Because when I bitch about why I don’t go to shul anymore I’ve got the specifics.
5+ years worth of ruined kiddush lunches arguing with Islamophobes telling me “All Muslims are violent” and “the Koran says such and such” which it never does because OP has never read anything but the Fox News translation, while I own 4 bloody translations of the Qur’an including the one most praised by the Salafis (Wahhabis) and can struggle through the Arabic at a snail’s pace if it has transliterated text beside it.
because the Jewish love of learning and respect for tradition has deteriorated into an aggressive appreciation for loud, boorish ignorance and racialism
Because they invite in racist Right-wing nutbars like Pamela Geller to talk in one synagogue and racist Left-wing nutbars like Al Sharpton into another. Is there a fucking shortage of intelligent people to invite to events? Do we not have any black Jews of our own to speak to us on racism? Apparently organized Jewry thinks so.(There are black Jews but their anti-racism might make us uncomfortable and we’d rather do like all the other liberals and point fingers at the white goyim’s dirty laundry than pull up our sleeves and wash our own)
Because they’ve got so cozy with Evangelicals and can’t see how its destroying Judaism not just politically but religiously, cause I’ve had Jews sending me shit from John Hagee about blood moons like we dunked him and gave him a s’micha (rabbinic ordination).
Because my shul puts up posters showing the rabbi four rabbis ago walking arm in arm with MLK but people are too good damn busy admiring the wilted lettuce they didn’t finish to say a word while I’m getting mobbed and bullied by four middle-aged men at kiddish and we’re just all pretending that Jews in Israel didn’t take their lawnchairs and coolers out to watch and cheer while Palestinians were getting bombed
the Israeli parliament turning into the Zionist Brownshirts Ball but don’t let’s talk about it lest it be a shanda fur die Goyim.
because the current rabbi is all about the pride flag and BLM but doesn’t have shit to say about Israel’s plan to annex the West Bank while the other nations are sick with covid
When there’s Gaels sitting on the Cheviot Hills cheering at all the English Covid deaths over their Irn-Brus, I will take seriously this woman’s intimations of a dangerous Scottish supremacy breeding in the Gaeltachd. This woman does not know from dangerous nationalism.
I take crap, as a convert. I don’t “look Jewish”. I don’t have a Jewish name.
When I would get to shul late helpful strangers would always tell me what page we were on, and show me where we were on it….on the English half of the page. And do you know what I’d say. I’d say, “Tov me’od” (thank you very much) and “Shabbat shalom” and then watch their eyes go like saucers when I’d find the corresponding spot on the Hebrew side and follow along. In fairness, like 90% of non-Orthodox Jews, they probably couldn’t read the Hebrew side themselves but I get the same thing at the Orthodox shul where they can read it. People ask your family name all the time to try to figure out if you’re “the real deal” (a born Jew). And people message you on J-date and then ghost when they figure out you’re a convert..You’re surrounded by Ashkenazim who think theirs is the only “right” way to be Jewish when you can never ever be an Ashkenazi. Not even if the dunked you in a mikvah of Manischewitz.And you’re not a Sephardi, or a Mizrachi or any other kind of Jew. You just float around in Jewish ethnic limbo.
But none of those things were the reason I don’t go to shul anymore. I left because I have a serious ETHICAL problem with the politics of organized Judaism, not a vague suspicion of zionism (as opposed to Zionism which I do have very specific issues with). I could’ve walked away completely, instead I went out looking and found myself some Jews who feel the same way I do to hang with.
I’m sure there are any number of “city Gaels” who haven’t had anyone to converse with since leaving GME, or proficient adult learners, who would be absolutely delighted to have someone fluent to talk to. They probably wouldn’t all be white, either. There’s a very nice half-black man who had a Gaelic-speaking mother complaining about Gaelic racism online right now and his whole family is fluent. If she looked him up she wouldn’t even have to be stuck in the Gaelic equivalent of converts’ corner with the learners.
Seriously, has this women made the slightest effort to find anyone, or is she just throwing the towel in and sulking about the fact that the ethically Scottish Gaeltachd Gaels are snobby? ‘Cause lots of them are snotty to the white learners without a recent connection, too. Honest to god, the fluent people who ignore proficient learners and resent being stuck amongst them socially, why does it never occur to them that they SHARE the same prejudice they’re complaining about in others….that Gaels who learnt at the knee are the only “real” Gaels and the only ones worth socializing with?
I agree that racism is an issue and attendees at Gaelic events could use a kick in the pants; a reminder that not all Gaelic speakers “look Gaelic” and to greet everyone and ask if they have Gaelic rather than assuming. Don’t just natter on about that Gaelic hospitality like so much cant. But there ends my agreement. I cannot take the rest of this seriously when it sounds like something written by “Project Fear” that Wee Ginger Dug should be sicced on. Oooo, scary Nats!
