David Baddiel's powerful book "Jews don't count." argues that many people who would describe themselves as progressive anti racists pay significantly less attention to what has been historically one of the worst and most murderous forms of racism than to almost all others.
Baddiel makes a convincing argument that on all sides of the political spectrum there is an extraordinary capacity even of people who are generally strongly and genuinely opposed to racism to fail to consider Jewish people, or to forget about, fail to notice, or downplay racism against Jews in a way that they would never do about almost any other form of racism.
In some ways it is more alarming that this blind spot applies not just to downright Anti-Semites but to people who had no intention of being racist. Individuals who will instantly apologise and make an effort to adjust their behavior if anyone calls them on it - which strongly suggests that nobody ever has.
He quotes the Guardian's Hadley Freeman: "Would addressing bigotry against any other minority be seen by the self-described anti-racist left as an unfortunate distraction, or is it just Anti-Semitism?"
Baddiel is a football fan and writes about the experiences he and his brother had of racism on the terraces. Not all that long ago racist chanting and abuse was completely endemic throughout football. The problem hasn't been completely stamped out but enormous efforts to reduce it have been made.
Except, he argues, for Anti-Semitic abuse. I do not claim to know a lot about football, and I do not know first hand how widespread is Baddiel's experience that officials and fans tolerate abusive comments against Jews which they would never tolerate against any other minority, But I know enough to take David Baddiel's points seriously, because I do know there is at least some truth in what he writes about the club which a member of my immediate family supports - Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.)
Spurs is based in a part of North London which has a significant Jewish population and has come to be seen by rival fans as a "Jewish" club, even though it isn't. That includes some people referring to the club and it's supporters by a word beginning with "Y" which is an insulting name for Jewish people - and which I am not going to write here, any more than I would write the equivalent insulting word for a black person beginning with "N."
Baddiel argues that there has been more tolerance of this - and indeed failure on the part of people who would not deliberately support any kind of racism to spot the problem - than there would be for other forms of racism. It may be an education issue; it may be that, because the word does not provoke the level of response that most other such words do; not everyone even knows that it is a racial slur.
The club itself is sufficiently bothered by this that quite recently - to be precise, in December 2020 which is between the date Baddiel submitted the last parts of the book to his publishers and the date it was published - Spurs adopted the IHRA definition of Anti-Semitism to reinforce its commitment that "The Club has a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism as well as any other form of discrimination."
It is quite extraordinary that prejudice against the race who were the main victims of the worst act of genocide in history should be the very same prejudice that many people apparently forget to consider when talking about racism. Yet this book makes a strong case that this is exactly what happens.
The title of David Baddiel's book was perfectly illustrated by a barrage of tweets the very weekend I was writing this review from Labour MPs and activists about their new Scottish leader.
The day before I posted this Anas Sarwar was elected as the new leader of the Scottish Labour party.
Perfectly OK for Labour supporters or anyone else to welcome his election. But extraordinary, and just plain wrong, for Labour MPs and activists from the party's Deputy Leader Angela Rayner down to describe him as
"the first ever ethnic minority leader of a political party anywhere in the UK."
Nonsense.
The first ever ethnic minority leader of a political party anywhere in the UK took office a hundred and fifty three years before when Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister and leader of his party.
Some people argued that he doesn't count as a Jew or as a member of an ethnic minority because he converted to the Church of England. That is silly. Disraeli didn't stop being the target of Anti-Semitism, didn't stop being proud of his Jewish heritage and didn't stop describing himself and being described by others as a Jew when he joined the Anglican church.
Once he was on the receiving end of an insult in the House of Commons from the leader of the Irish nationalists which included mention of his Jewish ancestry, and he replied
"Yes, I am a Jew,"
and added that his ancestors "were priests in the temple of Solomon."
I can think of at least three other people from ethnic minorities who became leaders of UK political parties. The second leader of a political party from an Ethnic minority was Herbert Samuel, ninety years ago. A third was Michael Howard.
Anas Sarwar isn't even the first national leader of the Labour party for the UK or one of the four nations who was a member of an ethnic minority - Ed Miliband beat him to that distinction in 2010.
Disraeli, Samuel, Howard, Miliband, all ignored by Angela Rayner and others. Now what do the four leaders these people were leaving out today have in common?
You guessed it: they were all Jewish. It's as if the people tweeting this weekend were using the title of David Baddiel's book: "Jews don't count" as an axiom where being a member of an ethnic minority is concerned.
Perhaps the saddest part of the book is the very last page. He refers to the fact that as a young person growing up, Baddiel greatly enjoyed the "Citizen Smith" comedy TV show about a young would-be revolutionary, "Wolfie Smith" played by Robert Lindsay. Wolfie Smith was, for him, a hero.
The day after the Equalities and human rights commission - an official body set up and operating under laws which the last Labour government itself had put onto the statue book, published a damning report into the failure of the Labour party to deal with Anti-Semitism, Robert Lindsey tweeted in defence of the party leader on whose watch that failure had occurred.
Baddiel concludes his book as follows:
"So obviously I know that was an actor playing a part. I know that was fifty years ago. But still, on realising that for Wolfie Smith, Jews don't count, a tiny part of me died."
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Jews are the only objects of racism who are imagined – by the racists – as both low and high status. Jews are stereotyped, by the racists, in all the same ways that other minorities are – as lying, thieving, dirty, vile, stinking – but also as moneyed, privileged, powerful and secretly in control of the world. Jews are somehow both sub-human and humanity’s secret masters.Highlighted by 679 Kindle readers- It doesn’t matter how rich you are, because the racists will smash in the door of your big house that they know you don’t deserve anyway and only own because you’re Jews.Highlighted by 420 Kindle readers
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Reviews with images
Essential reading.
I devoured this book in an afternoon it was so engrossing. It conjured up so many feelings about an issue that I thought I knew about but clearly didn't. How antisemitism is viewed as 'less' racist than other forms of racism, the role of identity politics and 'woke' culture in the discourse.If I'm being honest, me describing this book here would do it a disservice so read other reviews here and the endorsements above but one thing I can honestly and truthfully say is that its worth the buy, it will make you think and maybe, like me, challenge some of your held views.
Top reviews from other countries
Mike Morgulis
Why we are hated by the left and right
Reviewed in Canada on 14 January 2024
