Free Essay

Race Identity in Judiasm

In: English and Literature

Submitted By hbday1991
Words 1009
Pages 5
The concept of identity is a complex and ambiguous one to say the least. What is it about society that makes us feel the need to add the footnote: Jewish, Black, Muslim, etc., to our existence? This self-imposed segregation of our own species thus far, has only served to assist discrimination and hysteria. The blight this casts on society according to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainer Bill Cosby, and writer Tony Judt, is caused by ourselves, creating these race and religious identities in order to feel safer, blame others for own problems, and an attempt to make a perfectly imperfect world uniform. After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, Americas view on Muslim society drastically changed, Muslim Americans went from neighbors and citizens, to potential enemy combatants in the eyes of an overwhelming amount of Americans. Determining whether or not someone was a Muslim became of paramount importance to Americans. Citizens, who were once doctors, lawyers, and politicians especially, now had to identify themselves as a Muslim doctor, Muslim Lawyer, or the dreaded Muslim Politician. It was this type of fear that promoted the controversy over whether Mosque being built near the former site of the twin towers should stand; to which Mayor Bloomberg said “Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11, and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values and play into our enemies’ hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that.” (Michael 1). The popular sentiment
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Bloomberg speaks of is the anti-Muslim sentiment felt by a large majority of Americans, which creates the mental need for Americans to know whether or not someone is Muslim, so that they can feel safe. If society was not the one who made identification of whether someone was Muslim important, then why would Mayor Bloomberg call upon the people or society in this case, with regards to the issue of the mosque, instead of a law or governing body? Simply, because the people, are who made identifying something or someone as Muslim important, and no one else. Recently Bill Cosby addressed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP) for the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. In his address Bill Cosby says
“Ladies and gentlemen, these people set -- they opened the doors, they gave us the right, and today, ladies and gentlemen, in our cities and public schools we have 50% drop out. In our own neighborhood, we have men in prison. No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child.” (Bill 1) thus, rebutting the acceptability of the modern lower class African American image. Cosby in this speech is calling upon African American society to change the image of what is acceptable in their social circle. If he believed the government, or genetics determined how people classified themselves or behaved, Mr. Cosby would have called for a cure or legislation, not a change in how people view things. The image or qualities society creates or assigns to various religious or
Coon 3 ethnic groups is what cause people to fall into the types of roles Mr. Cosby mentioned. Those same constructs are also what divide us, and cause people who associate themselves with one identity to blame those that associate themselves with another, and as with most problems, society who has started it, is also the only one who can end it. In his final years writer Tony Judt published his memoirs one of which was Edge People in it Judt talks about the identity he feels most comfortable associating himself with “Edge People” which he describes as “ The edge: the place where countries, communities, allegiances, affinities, and roots bump uncomfortably up against one another—where cosmopolitanism is not so much an identity as the normal condition of life” (Edge 1), in other words the group where common identities such as Jewish, African American, and Muslim, are skewed or conflicted by either an unwillingness to identify themselves as such, or by meeting the qualifications of too many groups. The main point of his essay is not merely the fact that edge people exist but the importance they play, Judt believes identifying yourself as a particular group or nationality is our societies first step toward something truly heinous, complete segregation and uniformity. This belief can be seen in his quote: “Being “Danish” or “Italian,” “American” or “European” won’t just be an identity; it will be a rebuff and a reproof to those whom it excludes. The state, far from disappearing, may be about to come into its own: the privileges of citizenship, the protections of card-holding residency rights, will be wielded as political trumps” (Edge 1) because without edge people, there will be no one who is willing to go unaffiliated; therefore, everyone will be in an identity group, which Judt says will be used as the primary basis from excluding people in government, education, media, etc. This would lead to the eventuality of everyone being immersed in a society comprised solely of whatever group they are identified as. Coon 4
The concept of identifying a person as a particular religious or ethnic group, as opposed to the simplicity of just being human is a construct of society. Whatever the reason one may have for doing it; fear, a sense of acceptability, or a desire for community, someone’s religious or ethnic classification is still determined by society, regardless of reasoning to warrant it. Mayor Bloomberg, Bill Cosby, and Tony Judt, despite having diverse backgrounds, and differing opinions on what type of ailment race or religious identity provide, all of them prescribed the same cure changing that which caused it society.

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