Bank Shot
"How to Think About: Jewish Bankers," dealing with criticism of bankers and what constitutes anti-Semitism, doesn't add up to much. It's the kind of piece Michael Kinsley used to do well, but I'm not sure anyone could do significantly better, since when it comes to bigotry, it's often in the eye of the beholder. Not that there isn't widespread, ferocious anti-Semitism in the world--in fact, it's so open and obvious in so many places (and so often excused) that much criticism of bankers doesn't bother me. If it's anti-Semitic in origin, at least those expressing it generally know enough to try to hide it. Let's get rid of the obvious stuff first.
And the obvious stuff would include railing against bankers while making a point of their Jewishness, since they're not acting in particular as Jews or on behalf of Judaism.
But regarding most complaints against bankers, the issue is a lot trickier. We have to recognize there's legitimate criticism, and even illegitimate criticism that isn't necessarily bigoted. And here we start getting subjective. Even if someone is an anti-Semite, blaming bankers for the financial crisis and not explicitly mentioning Judaism will mean many (most?) won't pick up their intent. Meanwhile, there are those who will complain (usually in a populist manner) against the bankers, not intending to speak about Jews, but anti-Semites will read it as code for Jews. (That's the trouble with code. Not everyone can decipher it.)
Kinsley ends his piece with the story of Matt Taibbi's screed against Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone, where he wrote: "The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
The images used here are common anti-Semitic tropes, but Taibbi claims to be shocked by the accusation. Kinsley seems to say he should have known better, but I don't see why. Taibbi's piece struck me as a crazed rant, but born of a generalized insanity, not an anti-Semitic one.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:03 AM
3 Comments:
Kinsley: Many American Jews think "Jewish" when they hear the words "Goldman" and "Sachs," ...
That could be true, but it seems odd to assert this without any evidence. If you asked me, I would be able to identify Goldman-Sachs as a firm historically run by Jews, and Chase-Manhattan as a bank historically run by Baptists, but that doesn't mean that when I listen to a piece on the news about the banking industry the words "Jew" and "Gentile" constantly appear in my head every time a firm's name is mentioned.
Taibbi: " ... a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." LA Guy: Taibbi's piece struck me as a crazed rant, but born of a generalized insanity, not an anti-Semitic one.
I think the dividing line here is between those who are aware of modern antisemitism, and those who have studied the history of antisemitism and anti-Judaism. The former associate antisemitism with Nazis, perhaps with rednecks, with accusations that Jews are rich or smart, etc. But they are totally unaware of the medieval blood-libel, because that was (no surprise) back in the Middle Ages. But those who have studied the history of such things are aware of it, and better at detecting it in prose (whether or not it was intended there).
Kinsley is apparently more knowledgeable about history than popular culture. If I were reading this quote cold, the word governing "blood" would be "vampire". That suggests, not some mysterious blood ritual, but a blood-sucking vampire. Which makes me think of the extremely trendy vampire genre today, not of a centuries-old blood libel.
On the other hand, the term "vampire squid" doesn't fit the vampire story theme. It suggests the old old anti-semitic octopus image -- [1], [2]. So maybe Taibbi's rant was not so random after all. (Although these were sometimes racist against other ethnic groups [3] and against capitalists in general [4].)
Bottom line: I agree with L.A. Guy that the dangerous racist rants are those that are not so 'veiled' as to be incomprehensible to the target audience. Taibbi's was either non-racist or pretty darn veiled....
It would be interesting to measure anti-Semitism at some of the angry populist rallies. It might top academia
Open anti-Semitism, relatively rare in America, is common in a lot of other countries. Maybe this is because there are no other countries outside Israel that have enough Jews to keep people honest. Maybe this is why so many nuts believe Jews have too much influence over American policy, because they have any influence at all.
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