#judeowhat

[hankkalet]

#JudeoWhat? 3/3 I did find Ta-Nehisi Coates’s We Were Eight Years in Power, but tucked away under a different heading. Barnes & Noble has a separate section for African American books, which I guess makes it easy for white readers interested in Current Affairs to ignore. Coates, Michael Eric Dyson, Michelle Alexander, Eddie Glaude, and Stephen L. Carter may be black but they are more than just black writers and their books should be of interest — and should be read — by more than a black audience. // This is not about Barnes & Noble, but about our broader cultural defaults. Race is a black issue, never a white issue, and writing by blacks about race is always consigned to its own space. That’s why, the bookstore chain’s organization of its books, which gives Gabriel such prime real estate while tucking black writers away in their own marketing bantustan is really no surprise. #JudeoChristianValues #AfricanAmericanWriters #ACTforAmerica @Act4America @tanehisicoates @barnesandnoble https://www.instagram.com/p/BqTwmp-HT5T/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=tz1wdawud247

[hankkalet]

#JudeoWhat? 2/3 Judeo-Christian — this is a meaningless term that carries a lot of political weight, but has almost nothing to do with Jews and Judaism. As Jeffrey Salkin wrote last year for the Religion News Service (https://religionnews.com/2017/10/16/judeo-christian-trump/), the term came into use in the lead up to World War II as a way of “counteracting the fascist use of ‘Christian’ as code language for anti-Semitic.” After all, one couldn’t be anti-Semitic if one acknowledged the Judaic roots of Christianity. Its use expanded during the 1950s as a unifying phrase that could set our religiosity against the atheism of Soviet Russia. Jews were OK with it, Salkin says, because “Basically, it allowed Jews into the ‘country club’ — if not the real tennis and golf country club (that would come later), then at least the formerly restricted ‘country club’ of American culture.” // The term also “papers over some very real and crucial differences between the two faiths and the two cultures. Notions like the personage of Jesus of Nazareth; the meaning of religious law; the very essence of human nature — for starters.” // The reality is that it is a political phrase that makes the user seem expansive and open to difference, while still creating an other — in this case, Muslims, but also, somehow, Latino and African immigrants regardless of religion, and all of the out-groups targeted by the Christian Right. This, of course, includes Jews — as the events of the last two years have demonstrated. #JudeoChristianValues #AfricanAmericanWriters #ACTforAmerica @Act4America @tanehisicoates @barnesandnoble https://www.instagram.com/p/BqTwgkTH5z9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1516yu6xeenz4

[hankkalet]

#JudeoWhat? 1/3 I stopped at the Barnes & Noble in West Windsor today just to browse and ended up in the Current Affairs section looking for Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We We’re Eight Years in Power, a collection of essays on Obama, Trump, race, and America in the 21st century. The book wasn’t there, but this book by Bridgette Gabriel was. // The book, subtitles “In Defense of Judeo-Christian Values and Freedom, has been called by Publisher’s Weekly (https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-62999-548-9) an “execrable book” that is “questionably sourced” fear-mongering. It is, Publisher’s Weekly says, a “manipulative work comes across as a dangerous call to arms against marginalized immigrant and refugee groups within America.” // Bridgette Gabriel founded the group ACT for America, which has been classified a hate group. And she, like so many on the right, loves to turn liberal and progressive groups into straw men she can knock down, which is why she calls the book a defense of Judeo-Christian values. #JudeoChristianValues #AfricanAmericanWriters #ACTforAmerica @Act4America @tanehisicoates @barnesandnoble https://www.instagram.com/p/BqTwawGHJx3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mhier1vrekm0