Donald Trump, Anti-Semitism and the New Socialism of Fools

Trump won, so it looks like Trumpism did as well. Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy November 9, 2016

Here’s a little history for those just joining us: What’s long distinguished anti-Semitism from most other forms of oppression is that this form of bigotry presents itself as an anti-oppression ideology.

The anti-Semite doesn’t (in his or her view) hate Jews because ugh, Jews. Rather, the anti-Semite believes Jews to be an all-powerful force, a tyrannical aristocracy. Anti-Semitism, to the anti-Semite of the left or the right, is a social justice movement. A noble cause.

There’s been much talk, among Jews combatting anti-Semitism, of the ways the left these days refuses to include anti-Semitism among the forms of bigotry that are deemed worth combatting. The left, goes the thinking, either views all claims of anti-Semitism as surreptitious pro-Israel advocacy, or views Jews as too privileged to be oppressed. I promise I have on this, but that’s it for now, and, again, I highly suspect this isn’t the first you’re hearing on the matter.

What I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere, but what needs our attention, is the way racism – that is, the bigotry white people express towards people of color – has, in 2016 America, come to resemble anti-Semitism. Because, gah, it has! That is precisely what we’re seeing!

Eight years of black president followed by a female president was too much of a threat to white male authority.

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) November 9, 2016

As Filipovic’s tweet suggests, the new bigotry isn’t resentment at perceived ‘hand-outs’ but, rather, at achievement.

It’s important, though, when discussing white resentment*, to keep the following in mind: Just as anti-Semitism isn’t actually a response to Jewish wealth or power, nor is this new racism, which presents itself as a punch up, actually all that much of a response to a new order where people of color are, all of a sudden, richer and more powerful than white people. That’s… not what’s happening. Rather, it’s that white people have cherry-picked examples, some stronger than others (a black president, a big deal, at least symbolically! a bunch of think-pieces about black student protestors at elite colleges, maybe not representative of much!) and decided that Times Have Changed.

And so we’re left with a new racism – a newly election-winning racism – that understands itself as a fight against the “privileged”, a category that’s long since stopped just meaning the “rich,” but that now evidently includes (from Trump supporters’s perspective) not just Jews but all non-white, non-Christian Americans, all of whom get to fall under the euphemism of “urban elites.”

Really would prefer not to hear the term “white working class” again in my life.

— Benjamin Hart (@realaxelfoley) November 9, 2016

And then there’s that mantra of the moment, the White Working Class. An expression that may have once referred to a demographic, but that’s come to suggest that the working class is only white, and that white people (even rich ones) are the real victims as well as (conveniently enough) the only real Americans. Rather than addressing concerns of the entire country, Team Trump opted to go full Tumblr-identity-politics with this. So it’s not just that white working-class Americans have certain concerns, some of which had been overlooked. It’s that their issues are the real identity issues, speaking callously about their plight the real microaggressions. So now, thanks to a Trumpist racist victory, we have to have this national soul-searching about how white Americans have been wronged.

*White male resentment, it’s tempting to say, but it’s complicated.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO