My Negro Problem—And Ours is a controversial essay by

Norman Podhoretz Norman Podhoretz (; born January 16, 1930) is an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator, who identifies his views as " paleo-neoconservative".

, published in ''

Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

'' magazine in 1963.

About

The essay addresses Podhoretz's

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

, which he calls "the hatred I still feel for Negroes", based on his interactions with African-Americans while growing up as a white working-class Jewish boy in

Brownsville, Brooklyn Brownsville is a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsie ...

. In his integrated neighborhood, most people were either African-American or white. The white people were mostly

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who spoke Italian and whose grandparents had immigrated from

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, or

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

-speaking

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

from

Eastern European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

immigrant backgrounds. In the essay, Podhoretz related incidents of bullying from African-American children in the neighborhood. He expresses that as a child he felt "puzzled" by the idea that " all Jews were rich" and that "all Negroes were persecuted", because his observation was that "the only Jews I knew were poor" and that Black people "were doing the only persecuting I knew about - and doing it, morever, to ''me''." Podhoretz relates an incident where a non-Jewish Black friend hit him and refused to play with him because "I had killed Jesus"; after asking his mother for an explanation, she "cursed the

goyim In modern Hebrew and Yiddish (, he, גוי, regular plural , or ) is a term for a gentile, a non-Jew. Through Yiddish, the word has been adopted into English (pluralised as goys or goyim) also to mean gentile, sometimes with a pejorative se ...

and the Schwartzes, the Schwartzes and the goyim" in Yiddish and told him to ignore "such foolishness". Despite expressing disgust for interracial marriage, Podhoretz writes that widespread interrmariage and the subsequent erasing of racial differences could be a solution to racism: "I believe that the wholesale merging of the two races is the most desirable alternative for everyone concerned."

Reception

Receiving both praise for honesty and condemnation for racism, the essay has been called both notorious and brave. In '' We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity'', bell hooks writes that the essay shows a "fascination with black masculinity", noting that Podhoretz wrote that he "envied Negroes for what seemed to me their superior masculinity" and "what seems to be their superior physical grace and beauty." The Black writer Nylah Burton wrote in ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ...

'' that the essay is "drivel" that "traffic in hateful stereotypes" and refers to Podhoretz's views on Black masculinity as "creepy" and "fetishizing". Burton condemns ''Commentary'' for boasting about having published the essay: "How in 2018 can you brag about having published an article called 'My Negro Problem'? How can you call it the most powerful essay ever published? This fact alone should show us what this publication stands for: rampant anti-blackness, hidden under the thin veneer of 'intellectual rigor' ...''Commentary'' in other words, still has a 'Negro Problem.'"

References

External links

My Negro Problem—And Ours
1963 essays African-American history in New York City African American–Jewish relations American essays Antisemitism in New York (state) Ashkenazi Jewish culture in New York City Brownsville, Brooklyn Essays about culture Essays about politics History of racism in New York (state) Masculinity Jews and Judaism in Brooklyn White American culture in New York (state) Works about antisemitism Works about racism Works about Jews and Judaism Works about White Americans {{DEFAULTSORT:My Negro Problem-And Ours

About

Reception

See also

References

External links