Between global racial and bounded identity: choice of destigmatization strategies among Ethiopian Jews in Israel

Abstract

Our research explores how Ethiopian Jews in Israel apply local and global cultural resources when forming their reactive strategies to stigmatization. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with adult men and women, we examine class variations in the destigmatization strategies of working-class and middle-class Ethiopian Jews. Working-class Ethiopian Jews rely on their local bounded identity, that of Jews, rather than identity politics, which stresses phenotype in formulating destigmatization strategies. The former provide is Ethiopians of all classes with the network of meaning necessary for active participation in the broader society, whereas the latter is primarily the province of a small number of highly educated middle-class individuals, those who had access to social networks of highly educated liberals and could mobilize valued global black cultural resources (e.g. music, art) to their advantage in the local context.

Keywords:

• Ethiopians
• identity
• nationalism
• destigmatization
• cultural
• repertoire
• network of meaning

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the United States–Israel Bi-national Science Foundation for their financial support of this project, and to the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute for their financial assistance as well as for providing a home for the Israeli research team. We also wish to express our appreciation to our wonderful research assistant, Assia Zinevich, as well as to our Tel Aviv University students who conducted the interviews, together with the interviewees who agreed to participate in the study.

Notes

1. Although few studies exist on the community's class structure, for this like other cases of immigrant groups, local concepts of class have no historical depth. Evidence does point to the integration of thousands of college-educated Ethiopians primarily in the fields of law, public service, the media and non-governmental organizations. For example, by 2008, almost 200 civil associations had been founded by Ethiopians, with 21 per cent of those associations located in Israel's two main cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (Blevtchin 2008).

2. We are using this term as a shortcut for the set of traits most frequently, but neither absolutely nor universally, found among people belonging to the middle class.

3. By bounded identity we mean a sense of belonging linked to a broader and dominant collective, in this case, a national-Zionist Jewish identity. Expressions of a unique ethnic identity are circumscribed by the boundaries of the broader identity and embedded within its network of meaning. The unique cultural elements of Ethiopians Jews, for example, are therefore framed within the context of the Jewish diaspora rather than a global racial identity, which is shared with black non-Jews.

4. Identity politics represents a wide range of political activity and theorizing based on the shared experience of injustice by members of marginalized social groups. Theory and action within this framework is rooted in demands for recognition based on difference rather than on assimilation and the subject's experience of an authentic, pre-marginalized self. Identity politics has revealed liberalism to be the province of white, male, able-bodied, etc., individuals. As such, identity politics challenges the universalistic assumptions of the liberal discourse and its pretense to universalism.

5. Although there is some variability in terms of phenotype among the various diaspora communities, the most visible case being the Yemenites, in general, Sephardic or Mizrachi Jews are not necessarily identifiable by phenotype. See Mizrachi and Herzog in this issue.

6. See Stanton (2006) on the researcher's obligation to remain within her own capabilities.

7. See Tables 1 and 4, Mizrachi and Herzog in this issue.

8. In the Israeli context, it is not surprising that Arabs, as the Ultimate Other outside the Jewish collective, often refer to Israeli racism rather than discrimination. See Mizrachi and Herzog in this issue.

9. Ethiopian colloquialism meaning whites, appearing in various forms by number and gender.

10. Recent research on a group of Ethiopians participating in an affirmative action programme meant to integrate them into Israel's Police Department found that despite the economic achievements, participation in the programme led to the participants’ increased alienation and lower satisfaction. In addition, it was found that, when compared with their peers who had been recruited individually to the police, they believed that Israel was less equitable and that the stigma attached to them as Ethiopians interfered with their advancement and wages. See Blank, 2008.