And, in fact, many slave OWNERS were compensated for their ālossā when slaves were freed. See how deeply horrific the psychology behind white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is?
I fully, fully support reparations for slavery in the US but can we PLEASE not use the holocaust, or Jewsā alleged whiteness, as some kind of contrast case where everything worked out so well for everybody? Yes, I know there were a lot of reparations for stolen holocaust property and art, etc etc, but most of us, yes, us (second gen holocaust survivor here) were left completely destitute and alone, stripped of mothers fathers brothers sisters children cousins grandparents aunts uncles and everything but the shirt on our backs. PLEASE lets do these comparisons in a nuanced, sensitive way and not via simplistic internet memes.
@violethuntress How the world reacted to the aftermath of the holocaust is being used here like a lawyer would use case law to recommend the appropriate ruling in his current case. It is not seeking to minimize the horrors of the holocaust or anything Jewish people suffered. But Jewish people were (by the rest of the world; at least in the immediate aftermath) treated as people deserving, rescue, of remedy and of avenging. Few people dispute the horrors of the holocaust, those who do are treated as social pariah (for the most part). Compare that to Africans who suffered an equal amount of horror and lost even our names, our culture. Many of us donāt know who our families are past a few generations or where we came from. (We were not considered human enough to keep those records). Talk to white people on the street and MANY will respond as they were taught. That slavery, Jim Crow and oppression wasnāt that bad, or wasnāt their fault and so itās not worth mentioning. Some would even say that Africans were so subhuman that slavery ended up making their lives better. We were treated as literal livestock, bait for alligators, target practice all for the amusement of whites who were profiting -literally making fortunes- off our labor. This is not oppression Olympics, it is a frame of reference for assessing damages that any reasonable judge would allow to decide how a new victim should be compensated.
Iām sorry, but I believe that you are grossly wrong.Ā Jewish people were seen as deserving of rescue? In what world? Do you think that after the Holocaust, Antisemitism disappeared? Do you think that after the Soviets + Allies liberated the camps that people began to care and love Jews? Do you think that when the battered and broken Jews who survived the camps came back to a loving, and supportive society? No. The Jews came back to an antisemitic society, the same one that threw them into the Holocaust.Ā We have countries (Italy, France, Romanian etc) that made Holocaust and Armenian genocide denial criminal because we still have people arguing if the Holocaust existed. Because we have world leaders arguingĀ āIf Jews were really gassedāĀ āIf AuschwitzĀ really existed?ā Please educate yourself here, because a lot of these go into the 1990s and 2000s
Here is something calledĀ KrakĆ³w pogrom
We have people, political leaders, professors that deny or argue about the Holocaust today. As in in 21st century. 2016.Ā Do we have people arguing that Slavery in America was not a thing? That the Transatlantic Slave Trade did not happen? People in Italy learn about this. People in Russia learn about this (Straight from my parents mouth). My family in the Soviet Union learned about slavery in America in Uzbekistan. And none of them argued if slavery was actually a thing, that it was real.Ā What is the compensation that Jews got? Or still have? How many more times do we have to see a Jewish man stabbed in Milan? A Jewish man stabbed in Paris? A Jewish cemetery desecrated with Nazi symbols? Tumblr defending DieudonnĆ© Ā who is an Antisemitic, and invented a NeoNazi salute, quenelle. But he gets defended because heās Black so it is okay. Ā So yes, racism did not end when slavery ended (in fact, Lincoln just wanted to keep the country together, with or without slaves) and yes there was Black Codes, Jim Crow, Sharecropping, and hell today we have Black people killed for being Black jesus christ. But we NEED to stop making these comparisons. We NEED to stop them because they are in poor taste and just shows how ignorant people are in Antisemitism and Jews in Post-WWII.Ā Stop thinking that Jews got compensated. They came back to a broken home, broken stores, and still an antisemitic society.Ā Yes Germany is sending 90 year old Nazi soldiersĀ to jail but how many war criminals got away with their crimes Post-WWII? A LOT. Not every war criminal was jailed. A lot managed to leave, or escape any jail time.Ā
More people became aware of antisemitism, sure. More people became aware of how truly evil the Holocaust was. More people became aware of the effects of AntisemitismĀ but it did not stop Antisemitism.Ā We have people today arguing if The Holocaust was real. If Jews were really killed. We have those debates today. Out of all the damn evidence we have of the camps, of the experiments, of testimonials we still have theĀ āJewish questionā we still haveĀ āThe Holocaust questionā There are police around variousĀ synagogues in Italy, France, Germany, and I think in Austria too.Ā I want that to be bodedĀ and in front of everyone who believes in this antisemiticĀ āJews got compensatedĀ but Blacks didnāt!ā Stop using the Holocaust in your comparisons. Stop using us as your stand point, your backdrop. Your metaphors are not as neat as you and others think it is. It is highly antisemitic and offensive. This is not aĀ āframe of referenceā it is a comparison that somehow Jews got it better because theyāre White, and we need to stop racializingĀ Jews and Slavs and Roma and other Holocaust victims because that is exactly what Hitler and Mussolini did.Ā
