Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 75: Whoopi Goldberg, the Oppression Scale, and the Emotional Thermometer

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QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW

In this edited version of a Facebook live that April recorded after Whoopi Goldberg’s comments and the controversy that followed, April digs deep into her analysis of the reactions many in the Jewish community expressed. Internalized terror and persisting unhealed trauma–elicited by the Holocaust and centuries of persecution–among white Ashkenazi Jews has caused an understandable misalignment between those folks’ emotional thermometer and the actual thread of danger on the oppression scale. Despite the elevated blood pressures the situation has caused, it seems clear to April that compassion (for ourselves and others!), healing, and solidarity across lines of difference will lead us toward the future we want. 

Trigger Warning: This episode is not for you in this moment if as a result of this controversy, you are feeling terror or are in a panic mode.

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Access the audio version with a full transcript here.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Had you heard about this controversy before listening to this episode? What were your initial reactions, both intellectually and in your body?

  2. As you are listening to this, are you having any moments of resistance? Where? What is happening and how can you move through them instead of running away from then?

  3. In your experience, how do you interpret the difference between the oppression scale and emotional thermometer? Are there moments from your life when you or members of your community conflated the two?

  4. April lists a couple of different ways that we can release our internalized terror. Is internalized terror something you experience? Is it possible that it is something you experience, even subconsciously? And, what ways do you use or can you use to release?

  5. What did you learn from April’s perspective? What points in particular are sticking out for you? 

  6. April drives the point home that “All ish can be fertilizer if we choose it to be and when we’re ready for it to be.” How does this resonate with you? How can you and your communities apply this to this situation and others?

  7. What is a kavannah or intention you want to see in the world that is clarified by what happened and this convergence moment and how this played out? What is your answer to the question, “how does this further clarify what I want?”

COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?

Let us know in the comments below!