Notes
Notes Chapter 1: Whitens Whites, Keeps Colors Bright 1. This is not the common interpretation of the boundedness of identity. See Bickford, “Anti-Anti-Identity Politics,” 1997. 2. See Brettschneider, Democratic Theorizing From the Margins, 2002 for an extended discussion on my views here, and Brettschneider, Race, Gender, and Class, 1999 for an encapsulated version in a Jewish context. 3. See Walker, Black, White, and Jewish, 2001; Azoulay, Black, Jewish, and Interracial, 1997; Blustain, “Are You Black or Are You Jewish?, 1996; Krakauer, “Casting Miss Saigon’s Baby,” 1991; Patton, Birth Marks, 2000; McKinley, The Book of Sarahs, 2002; Chau, “More than Chicken Chow Mein,” 2004; Radin, “Better Off Than You Would Have Been,” 2004; Ross, Oreo, 1974; Propp et al., for writing by some who have been through this before us as the kids noted here. There are also many examples of those who grow up to explore this phenomenon in the arts. For example, in 2005 Rain Pryor, Richard Pryor’s daughter, took her one woman show “Fried Chicken and Latkes” about being Black and Jewish on tour. 4. This point is palpable in Hart’s The Identity of Mixed Race (2001) study on Black Jews in the United States. Her work revealed that participants felt the need to educate people regarding African-American and Jewish diversity in order, in part, “to begin to establish a place for Black Jews that would be recognized by society.” This was so because the issues of identity-based ambiguity Hart found among participants stemmed from their experience of people’s lack of information of the very existence of Black Jews (99). See also Conaway, “Journey to the Promised Land,” 2004; Herron, “Pastel Meetings,” 2003; Gray, My Sister, the Jew, 2001; Yolanda Shoshanna, “Am I My Sister’s Keeper?,” 2004. 5. Although we carry nine books by Julius Lester, we do not carry his Lovesong: Becoming a Jew 1988. Regarding “celebrity” or well known Black Jews, for example, we also carry a number of holdings including films, audio recordings, and books by and about Sammy Davis, Jr. (i.e., 1965), Lani Guinier, or Walter Mosley though they appear in no Jewishly related searches. 6. Berger notes that as late as 1942 there was still a functioning Black Jewish community in St. Thomas (1978, 12). 7. Hatzaad Harishon was an organization to help with the problematic reaction of the mainstream U.S. Jewish community to Black Jews and growing congregations of Hebrew Israelites (Berger 1978, chap. 15: 166–171). Of interest 147 to archivists and others, the short-lived group published its own newsletter. The Synagogue Council of America also made an effort to deal with the disenfranchisement of, and bias against, Black Jews with regard to the larger Jewish community in the United States. In 1970, the organization created a Committee on Black Jews, which also organized a well-attended conference in the spring of 1973 (Berger 1978, 180–182). 8. Chireau, Yvonne and Nathaniel Deutsch, eds., Black Zion, 2000. 9. We carry Tudor Parfitt’s work (the 1993, not the 1987). As yet another aspect of the racial politics discussed here, our library carries two works by Howard Brodtz, one on African-American history and social conditions and one on racial issues in South Africa. We do not carry Brodtz’s 1964 work on Black Jews in the United States. See also Boykin , Black Jews, 1982; Ben-Jochannan, We the Black Jews, 1993, and Our Black Seminarians, 1998; Freedberg, Brother Love, 1994; Gelman, Adat Beyt Moshe, the Colored House of Moses, 1967–1971; Landing, Black Judaism, 2001; Lounds, Israel’s Black Jews, 1981; Berger, Black Jews in America, 1978; Gerber, The Heritage Seekers, 1977; Wynia, The Church of God and Saints of Christ, 1994; and Kinda, La Bagola, 1930. For works on Jews in Africa see for example: Onolemhemhen and Gessesse, The Black Jews of Ethiopia, 1998; Parfitt, The Thirteenth Gate, 1987, and Journey to the Vanished City, 1993. 10. We also carry Herron, Nappy Hair (1997), who self identifies as Black and Jewish . . . and how many others who are not recognized/erased? 11. Azouley, A Jewishness After (2001) notes this problematic as well. 12. A sampling of the large body of literature on Black-Jewish relations may be found in: Adams and Bracey, eds., Strangers and Neighbors, 1999; Weisbord and Stein, Bittersweet Encounter, 1970; West and Salzman, Struggles in the Promised Land, 1997; Salzman, ed., Bridges and Boundaries, 1992; Rogin, Black Face, White Noise, 1996; Pogrebin, Deborah...
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