There’s a history here that may not be as obvious and upfront to everyone. And when somebody like Macklemore dons a costume that is called out for being anti-Semitic, all I’m asking is for him - and those who doubt the outrage - to step back and see where folks are coming from. That doesn’t make these transgressions any less real or harmful. Some might call these microaggressions, and truth be told, on a daily basis I do not get treated any differently for being Jewish because it’s not always a visible identity. And these are just a few of the stand-out incidents. We made our way to a village where people looked at us strangely and actually asked us where our horns were.
In college, my boyfriend and I spent a few weeks in Italy. My boss had no problem calling the cash register a “Jewish piano” right to my face. I also worked at a small farm market in that same town for my last few years of high school. When I was a teenager attending high school in a middle-upper class Connecticut suburb, I had one girl pull me aside once to let me know that I was actually pretty cool “for a Jew.” That seemed to surprise her. As a child I remember tracing the tattoo on his arm, wondering why he had a random set of numbers permanently inked there. My grandfather wasn’t as “fortunate.” He and his family were separated and he spent his teen years in various concentration camps, experiencing untold horrors. My grandmother and her family lived in underground bunkers in the middle of Polish woods in order to escape Nazi persecution - the same Nazis that put out propaganda which eerily echoes Macklemore’s costume. I’m not here to play the Oppression Olympics, but I would like to share a few anecdotes about my own experiences as a Jewish woman, so you - especially those who really don’t see anything wrong in what Macklemore did - get a better feel for where I’m coming from. Incidences like Macklemore’s has me repeating the idiom, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” I understand that not everybody has had much exposure to Jewish people and the history of discrimination against them, but that’s no excuse. It also doesn’t help that his fake nose in question is labeled “Fagin,” as in “Fagin the Jew” from Oliver Twist.ĭespite public claims to the contrary, we are not a “post-racial,” country and that includes anti-semitism. There’s something about the long, hooked nose and dark hair that just calls out “Jewish miser” to me - the incredibly offensive and racist stereotype that connects Jews with being greedy, nebbishy, moneygrabbers. Maybe that’s why I zeroed in on the resemblance with Macklemore’s costume. Growing up, I’ve seen that stereotype all too often. His costume - to me, a first generation American Jew - screams Jewish stereotype.
But his complete obliviousness is part of the problem. I actually believe Macklemore wasn’t malicious in his intent. I truly apologize to anybody that I may have offended.” I am here to say that it was absolutely not my intention, and unfortunately at the time I did not foresee the costume to be viewed in such regard. I acknowledge how the costume could, within a context of stereotyping, be ascribed to a Jewish caricature. Thus, it was surprising and disappointing that the images of a disguise were sensationalized leading to the immediate assertion that my costume was anti-Semetic. “My intention was to dress up and surprise the people at the show with a random costume and nothing more. Late yesterday, he took to Tumblr to issue an apology. To me, and many others, the costume looked like a negative stereotype of a Jewish man.įor his part, Macklemore denies that he purposefully intended to mock Jewish people with his costume. But the costume was anything but awesome. Awesome, right? Only, because it was a surprise, Macklemore wanted to go a bit incognito and donned a costume. Last Friday, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performed a surprise music concert at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle.
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