Check All That Apply
Newsletter January 23, 2023 Together, we're #keepingitsacred... 24 years ago, I was part of a group that advocated passionately for the US census to allow for people to “check all that apply” with regard to race, instead of only allowing people to check one box. And I still stand firm in holding space for the multidimensionality of identity, be it multiracial identities or other types of intersectionality. As someone who grew up as a product of two people with radically different backgrounds, I know it diminishes identity to allow only one to be represented. To make people choose one part of themselves over the other flattens their beautiful depth.
I was recently listening to a discussion about Interfaith Marriage hosted by the wonderful organization, 18Doors.org. During the discussion, the host posed a question: is it okay to joke about “all Jews going to eat Chinese food on Christmas”? And they brilliantly broke down why this kind of statement is so problematic. Check out their responses here about 25 minutes in: https://youtu.be/4CSMzkJb0rU
I would add that when we make a statement like that we erase the experience of Jews who, in various ways, actually have Christmas plans, be they with in-laws or friends, colleagues, or if they mark the holiday with a Christian partner in their own homes. It also erases the experience of Jews who eat Chinese food because… they are Chinese! To say “all Jews”…anything erases the beautiful depth and complexity of what it means to be Jewish or love Jewishly. Where do Jews come from? Everywhere, actually. What do Jews eat? Everything, actually. What do Jewish families and communities look like? Ask. And recognize that we are beautifully complex. And that is the normative.
This past weekend the AAPI community experienced a terrible tragedy as a shooting amidst a Lunar New Year celebration took place, killing ten people. With good intentions, I saw many posts from Jewish organizations standing against hate. But here’s the thing- many said things like “Jews stand with Asians” and a hashtag, #JewsforAsians was employed. I say this as someone typing on a countertop next to a box of lunar new year cakes that my Jewish Asian wife got for our house- Jewish Asians exist. And in this moment of pain and hurt and time trying to negotiate going to local Lunar New Year celebrations when the world feels so horribly violent, to be made invisible is additionally rough. And painful. Jewish and Asian identities do not always exist as two completely separate identities. There is much beautiful overlap. At Keeping It Sacred, we see you. We stand with you. And we ARE you. And we reaffirm that publicly especially in these tender times.
The Keeping It Sacred community is one that has been built to hold space for all the beauty of all of our identities. Everywhere along the spectrum of gender and sexual orientation, ability and class and observance practices, we hold space for the vast array of spiritual beliefs, and nationality, and generations, and family structures, and geography and culture and the complexity, all at the same time. That is our normative.
Here, our members came come as we are, in all that we are. And it is beautiful. Check all that apply.
That’s how together, we are #keepingitsacred… Rabbi Heather Miller Founder, Keeping It Sacred |
The above is an excerpt from a Keeping It Sacred newsletter. If you want to read the entire newsletter or any from our archives, please head over to: keepingitsacred.com/news And if you'd like the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week, please share your name and email address in the fields at the bottom of the page in the purple boxes. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred… |