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A variety of white? black? yellow? Was I color-blind?
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I’ve never understood the variety of Whites or Caucasian as you may point out. In Malaysia, the media often portrays a single type of White, the privilege one. There’s no such thing as poor whites, Latinos or a Jewish background. As long as you have white skin, you are considered “Guai Loi” which means ghost guy or white person. My experience at Bryn Mawr has taught me otherwise. A lot of my close Jewish friends taught me that Jews have been through a lot to get to where they are now. One of my most memorable lectures that I saw my Jewish friends fall into tears was a speech by Norman Finkelstein’s “How to Resolve the Israel-Palestine Conflict”. As a fellow Malaysian who indirectly supports Palestine based it’s cruel history, seeing my Jewish friends blamed for being Jews was quite heartbreaking. I can never understand the true power dynamics that was involve. I find it quite interesting how a significant number of Jewish people I know come from hardworking families but are also blamed for their cruelty towards the Palestinians. I can see some form of grudge sometimes through silence. This will forever remain a sensitive topic at least in my circle of ‘diverse’ friends.
Comments
malaysians, jews, palestinians
laik012,
So are you suggesting that while the media portray white people as monolithic, Jews are white people who are nevertheless different from other white people?
I think I hear you saying that the conflict between Jews and Palestinians is confusing because both groups are "different" in the sense that they've "been through a lot" - is that right? You begin with sympathies for Palestine, then develop sympathy for Jewish friends. Might it be that finding in oneself sympathy for both opposing groups provides a clue to moving beyond the binaries so central to local and global conflict?