Next Stop: White Supremacist Twitter š¬
How I got on the radar of literal social media Nazis.
Trust me when I say this was not the next stop I wanted to make. Can we go back to Copenhagen? Ooo, what about Japan? I heard theyāve opened the borders to tourists again!
Alas, not every trip we take is one we want.
I was sitting on the couch one night when I opened Twitter with a lethargic swipe of my index finger. I did a double take when I saw the number of notifications in my mentions.
āDid I say something witty that went viral?ā I thought. āProbs. No big deal.ā
I clicked on the bell-shaped icon to have a look. Suddenly, a stream of messages came pouring ināāmany of them calling me out for being Jewish. But, you know, with a negative connotation to it. They screenshot my Twitter bio, where I mention (among other things) my bylines with @JewishFood.
āSurprise, surprise,ā was the gist. āHeās one of them.ā
I appreciated the affirmation of being a member of the tribe. Though as Iād soon learn, it wasnāt exactly the group I wanted validating my identity.
Looking at a handful of the profiles, I saw anime avatars, obviously fake names, and bios pledging some sort of allegiance to the white race.
āAh, greatā¦ā I thought. āNazis.ā
In that moment, I hadnāt a clue as to how I drew the ire of white supremacists. My writing isnāt the kind of thing I would think they have an eye on. And if it was the Jewishness they found so offensive, I hadnāt written anything explicitly Jewish in recent weeks. (That said, Iāve got a BBQ bourbon kugel recipe I bet theyād love!)
After a bit of sleuthing, I tracked down the impetus of it all. Salon.com republished a story I wrote for Food52 on the cuisine of the SĆ”mi people. A white supremacist account with a significant following simply retweeted the article as if to say, āGo get him.ā Their following took to the bait like a pack of basement dwellers to the conspiracy theory du jour. (Today, the election was stolen! Tomorrow? Alien probes are real! Thatās why I walk funny.)
Their beef? The headline referred to the SĆ”mi as mainland Europeās only indigenous people. At the time of writing, I did think maybe I could explain a bit about how the SĆ”mi are considered indigenous since most U.S. readers have likely never heard of them and presume that indigenous folks are exclusive to the Americas and the countries of Oceania.
But, I had also read books about how SĆ”mi have long been forced to justify their indigenous roots. I didnāt think it my place to explain or justify their identity, especially when, more importantly, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs already does that better than I ever could.
So I left it out, sharing instead a bit of history before diving into the cuisineāāthe focus of the piece. But apparently the white supremacists stopped at the headline. Color me surprised that white supremacists would be the type to yell about an article they didnāt actually read.
By calling the SĆ”mi Europeās only mainland indigenous peoples, I was apparently saying that white Europeans have no ancestral claim to anywhere they live. They get bupkis and thatās that. Bonus points for evidently feeding into a harebrained Jewish conspiracy that Jews are replacing white people with, I guess, non-white people?
Thatās why I found myself inundated and tagged onto other messages with strangers digging through my writing to find more evidence of my Jewishness. I learned the phrase āearly life check,ā referring to the āEarly Lifeā section of a Wikipedia page that often describes someoneās heritage. So Iād see messages like, āIām gonna need an early life check here.ā
(Okay, I know itās beyond the point, but is it really a need? Is knowledge about whether or not Iām Jewish really on par with food and shelter? I think not, but thatās just me.)
Some went through the effort of pulling up a photo of me in a Hanukkah sweater a few years ago.
āLoOk WhAt I fOuNd!ā went the refrain anytime something came up, as if I were trying to hide the writing listed in plain sight on my bio and eponymous website.
If ever there were a time for an, āOy vey,ā this was it.
A mishmash of annoyance and paranoia flushed through my body. I notified my editor and immediate family, just in case someone went extra bonkers, and I went quiet on social media. Iād only pop back in to block the Nazis tweeting about me. Eventually, and thankfully, they faded away once it was clear I wouldnāt take the bait and engage with them.
The point of this newsletter is generally to inspire travel and try new things. In this case, donāt feel inspired. I do not recommend white supremacist Twitter. Go someplace else. Anywhere else. Zero stars.
Hereās the part where I share what Iāve published recently. But like the white people Iām apparently trying to replace, you get bupkis!
Fear not, I have things in the works. Instead, allow me to share a couple of recent reads I thoroughly enjoyed.
Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities
I became interested in my Jewish heritage later in life, connecting mostly through ancestral research, travel, and family stories, and like Tamkin, learning a bissel Yiddish. Reading "Bad Jews" was oddly comforting in the sense that it reassured me that these debates about what it means to be Jewish have been going on since Jews have existedāāand not everyone is going to be thrilled with the kind of Jew you are. āBad Jews" is a compelling and engaging narrative that tells the story of American Jewry in all of its complexities. I still have questions, but I finished the book with a better understanding of my ancestors' experiences in adjusting to life in the United States. And that in and of itself is a rewarding feeling.
Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew
Where to begin? Michael Twitty is one of the first writers/cooks I think of (if not the first) in the Jewish food space. The passion in his writing leaps from the page and into your soul. I thoroughly enjoyed Koshersoul (as I did The Cooking Gene) and can't wait to start trying some of the recipes in the book. Get this book!
Sorry you those crazies found their way to you...