Of course I am. So are you. So is the author. I would not expect you to apologize to me for miss-characterizing some issue — e.g. not long ago I wrote about Mike Pence & “Rabbi” Loren Jacobs presiding over a memorial for the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. I expressed anger over the use of a phony Messianic “Rabbi” who babbled on some prayer about “Yeshua” instead of reciting Kaddish. Trump supporters came back insisting Messianics are a sect of Judaism, so what’s the big deal? I implored them to do their own research — no need to take my word here. Of course, none did.
Point being, I would have been more than happy & grateful for a simple acknowledgment that maybe I was right — “I stand corrected” — no apology needed. & I believe what people like Jacobs represent, assimilation, is far more dangerous to Jewish people than anti-Semitism or even the Holocaust.
You write “apology or consideration” above. Didn’t the Bernie supporter offer the latter when he stood corrected?
When I asked who the author was, it was intended to be a reminder that she couldn’t possibly speak for all Black people — & therein lies the rub, because if her correspondent is expected to apologize to her for not comporting to her syntactical expectations, what about the next Black person he corresponds with? Is every conversation he engages in supposed to start with an apology? That’s an exaggeration, I know, but not terribly far out. Pretty soon, one is inclined to stop speaking at all.
That James Baldwin quote is interesting: “trapped by a history we don’t understand”… I need to think on that.
I’m not sure I would read that much into the 2016 election, because Trump, after all, didn’t win by a landslide. In fact, like many recent Republican administrations his was a minority victory, enabled by the Electoral College & various shenanigans, especially the FBI’s having re-opened, then closed, the bogus investigation into Hillary’s e-mail. In spite of a seemingly strong economy, he remains far less popular than other Presidents during periods of similar economic parameters. That said, he might very well be re-elected because obviously the Democrats are trying to play it safe & avoid putting a candidate who might actually excite & unify the electorate into the fore.
Finally, what Baldwin wrote about the Holocaust is correct, if a bit condescending. Why wouldn’t Black people be surprised? Are all white people alike? After all, an event like the Holocaust, coming in say the USSR, after a decade of famine, bloody civil war, Red Terror, savage suppression & pogroms, would not have been that surprising. Coming in Germany, after a decade of liberalization & growing democratic government, it was.
What would Baldwin have said about the Rwandan genocide?
