While a certain type of American blowhard is blathering on about “wokeness” and defunding libraries, the rest of us have been quietly getting on with the life-long process of learning.
For example, while my theology and historical understanding of the Pharisees has been appropriately nuanced over the years, a recent conversation with Rabbi Oren from Kol Ami has led me to tweak my Communion Rite, and begin reading a new book on the Pharisaic movement.
I grew up learning about and talking about “slaves.” It is only recently that I have come to understand how that term essentializes and reduces the humanity of those held in bondage. I now try to avoid the term slave, for they were people, not objects. I lean into “enslaved people,” and similar terms, making clear that slavery did not define who they were, it is something that was done to them.
For years, I’ve pushed back against the term “sexual preference” as applied to members of the LGBTQI+ community, as if everything about us was reduced to what happens in bed and being gay was a choice, like say Rocky Road ice cream instead of Vanilla. I’ve tried any number of alternatives, but in the end, gay, lesbian, and all of those other letters gets to where we need to be and reflects the diversity of folks who do not fit the majority culture constructs and gender and relationship.
There is, however, one word that triggers a certain type of privileged American that still leaves me scratching my head. I mean, they make a big deal out of Memorial Day, go on and on about “The Greatest Generation” as if no other generation was ever great. But say the word “antifascist,” and they have you pegged as a cop-killing communist. And shorten it to “antifa,” and they just about explode.
I don’t think we need to redefine or abandon the term antifascist. I am proudly Antifa. You know, like my grandfather, part of that supposedly “Greatest Generation.”
Continue reading “Fascist Killing Hope Machine: 27 November 2022”