Jennifer R. Povey
2 min readJun 21, 2021

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Okay, so I am going to be blunt here. I am an Ashkenazic Jew from western Europe. My ancestors were expelled from Poland.

I would not change places with Black people in the U.S. for anything. I am lucky in that I have mostly dodged anti-semitism, but I still have to deal with it...often in its most subtle forms of Holocaust comparisons and comments like "hyperprivileged."

I still believe that I currently (watching the fascism trend) have it better than a Black person in America. I have never, to my knowledge, not been hired for a job or gig because of my ancestry. People don't cross the street to avoid me. About the only thing I get that's the same is people telling me to get over the Holocaust, often the same people who tell Black people to get over slavery.

I don't have to be afraid that if I call the cops they'll shoot me. (I DO have to be afraid they will shoot somebody else, though). I'm not worried that if I have to move somebody won't sell or rent to me (although this has certainly been true for Jews in the past). If I'm selling a house, I don't have to borrow a white family to be photographed in it to get it appraised at full value.

Now, if you're talking about what's going on in Israel specifically, you might have a reasonable comparison.

But no, I do NOT have it as bad as a Black person. I don't have it as good as a white person without Jewish ancestry, but I don't have it as bad as a Black person.

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Jennifer R. Povey
Jennifer R. Povey

Written by Jennifer R. Povey

I write about fantasy, science fiction and horror, LGBT issues, travel, and social issues.

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