Anti-antisemitism is a practice open to anyone, not an identity

Evidence

Perhaps I should not so much think of myself as a subject, here, not even primarily as an agent or actor. I have an identity, to be sure, a complex set of identities even. I remain the master of my domain, in other words, whatever domain that is, but being anti-antisemitic may not have much to do with that. It probably should not be considered, nor accounted for, by way of my identity. It is not really who I am, not quite an aspect of that identity (or identities). Is it not rather, and primarily, something that I do? Whether as a professional or as a volunteer, engaged in occasional and ephemeral acts or committed to the endurance of strong lines of action, I do not really have to be anything to be anti-antisemitic. No prior identity is required, and none is thereby constituted. There is no particular subject here and anyone can therefore become part of the struggle. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1196 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

These recent figureheads of the struggle against antisemitism are at once isolated and conspicuously discreet about their precursors, if there were any. Arendt does retrieve out of oblivion the idiosyncratic figure of Bernard Lazare; Horkheimer and Adorno rely, for their part, on Sigmund Freud (though not on his singular attempt to counter antisemitism in Moses and Monotheism); and whereas Fanon could complain about the inadequacy of his predecessors in the struggle against racism and colonialism (Maran, Mannoni), Sartre—who inspired Fanon before writing a preface for The Wretched of the Earth—makes no similar gesture in his famed attack on ‘the antisemite’. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1200 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Being anti-antisemitic is an act, not an identity — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1196; Anti-antisemitism lacks a cultural model or narrative of its own subjectivity — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1201; Anti-antisemitic thinkers conspicuously avoided invoking any predecessors — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1200 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Being anti-antisemitic is an act, not an identity #corroborates (0.97) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1196
• Identity is defined oppositionally, against those one is not. #complicates (0.78)
• Anti-antisemitic thinkers conspicuously avoided invoking any predecessors #complicates (0.75) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1200
• Anti-antisemitism is a spiritual practice embedded in institutions and history #complicates (0.75)