An Experiment in Second Person Writing: Notes on a Partial Jewish Identity

Abstract

Jewish people are a unique minority group identified through a religious belief system, a culture, and supposed biological traits. I describe myself here as a partial Jew, indicating my unique status parallels the identities of mixed race individuals who feel some other minority group members see them as like themselves but marginally or partially so, at times creating a double marginalization. Through my marginal identity, I encounter prejudice and discrimination from non-Jews and Jews alike. Taking cues from Claudia Rankine, I write examples of everyday identification, prejudice, and discrimination in the second person, in a style unique to sociology. I note my silences, responses, and thoughts about those encounters. I consider whether these everyday encounters constitute microaggressions, and what, then, I am, and you are, left with.