Sinophobia and antisemitism entwined in RFK's ridiculous, dangerous rant. Why am I not surprised?

image: Leah Ai Tian, heroine of Fair Square Comics' "The Last Jewish Daughter of Kaifeng" by Fabrice Sapolsky, with Fei Chen, Ho Seng Hui, Will Torres, Exequiel Roel and Walter Pereyra

---

Let’s agree that RFK Jr. is not a well man and perhaps have a bit of compassion for the rich asshole with the tin foil hat and the big soapbox.
 
But the fact that his latest scandal rolls anti-Asian and anti-Jewish tropes together in one breath should shock no one. There is nothing new about the offensive, reductive “Asians are the new Jews.” Both diaspora groups in the U.S. have long been pegged with similar labels. Okay, sure, we value education and hard work. As if that were unique to us. But quiet part out loud. We’ve all heard these tropes: We’re all about success and money. (At this late stage, I wish I had considered those things a bit more.) We’ve got pushy moms. And we’re pushy, too. (Jews in our loud way and Asians in their quiet way. And neither quite in the Ameri-normative way.) We came to the U.S. as immigrants, and now we’re running things. There are too many of us in top colleges, and [Asians: tech, business] [Jews: the media, business]. We came here from out there, and we’ve made ourselves right at home. Snagged the American Dream at the expense of those still trying to achieve it.

At the current moment—and fueling RFK’s conspiracy theories—there’s also the ugly fairy tale about how Asians were responsible for Covid, as Jews were responsible for the plague and other pandemics throughout history.

No argument, actually, that my personal lived experience has been as someone both privileged and marginalized. Anyone in my boat is an easy target for folks on either side of the political divide. RFK, with his Covid was designed to target “Caucasians and Blacks” and spare “Ashkenazi Jews” (code for white-passing but not Caucasian, the tricky little bastards) and “Chinese” (read Asian) stunningly managed to play both sides of the bigot field simultaneously.
 
In a funny way, I don’t entirely disagree with RFK Jr. With my one foot in privilege and one in marginalization—a place I have lived for 65 years, I know the contours of both sides of the field like the back of my hand. I like to think this puts me in a good position to be a bridge builder. I take that responsibility seriously. I know many of my Jewish and Asian sibs do, too. Tikkun Olam as my peeps say. Work for good in the world and fight hate. RFK’s comments were at worst hateful, and at best ignorant and careless. Either way, they widen the racial and ethnic gulfs in this country. Resist anything that would divide and conquer!