Anyone want to help with this particular battle?
animzmirot
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One of the premier "MOMMYblogging" sites, http://www.bloggingbaby.com/ has
done a real hatchet job on anyone who doesn't celebrate that other holiday
on Dec 25th. If you look in their december archives, you'll see post after
post after post about Xmas, but absolutely NOTHING about any other holiday.
So I complained. I wrote them a note after they finally posted something
after Xmas about Chanukah, and it was a non-original (i.e.cribbed) story
about how Chanukah is just as materialistic as Xmas. So I got ticked and
complained first about the oversaturation of Christmas posts, and secondly
about how insulting it was to FINALLY get a mention for another holiday, and
all it contained was a negative comparison to Christmas.
The editor of blogging baby put some of my comments into the year end
wrapup, which was posted yesterday at the site. Here is my comment and the
editor's followup.
"I think it's very sad and pathetic that most of the authors percieve
yourselves to be the hippest, most diverse, most politically correct of
bloggers, and yet you have consistantly ignored the fact that plenty of
people do not celebrate Christmas and do not need to read about every gift
your were planning to buy, then about how you bought it, and how you wrapped
it, and how you decorated your house, and what you cooked, and who you
celebrated with, and what your children thought of, etc. etc. etc. Why not
go back and count the number of Christmas posts over the month of December.
I think if you did, you might see how insensitive it is to focus solely on
this one day holiday like it's the center of the universe..."
"Well, actually, we did feel badly about not including more coverage of
Hannukah and Kwanzaa. As it turns out, none of our writers celebrate these
days and it's difficult to write from our typically first-person perspective
about things we just don't do. My brother is a practicing Jew and I wanted
to write about his family's celebration (which embraced both Christmas and
Chanukah), but never had the opportunity to do so.
But there's a fix for this: tell us your multi-cultural stories. You can use
our tips form (we always read tips that come in, and write about most of
them), or you can upload your multi-cultural photos to our Flickr group, or
you can write about your celebrations on your own blogs and let us know."
So, I read this and now I'm REALLY pissed off. This was my comment to this
post:
"Whilst I appreciated that you used my comment on the lack of sensitivity
about Christmas posts, you didn't seem to quite get the gist. You guys
posted WAY too much about a 24 hour period. Period. Nobody but nobody needed
to read so many boring obsessive posts on the various minutae of your
family's planning and celebration. What other holiday takes more than a full
month of constant discussion?
Secondly, you immediately put the onus on us 'multicultural' folks to point
out our posts about our holidays to you. Why should we? Part of your job, as
far as I can see, is to look beyond the blogs of your friends (a big hint
for a certain recently returned San Franciscan) and look at blogs you are
either unfamiliar with, or don't read as a rule. I certainly have posted
enough comments on each of the writer's blogs to clue you all into my
existance, and yet I'm asked to "remind you" of my existance. Again, not my
job. There are plenty of 'multicultural' blogs out there...go and look for
them. Make an effort, people.
And lastly, I find it demeaning that you would even think to call me
'multicultural'. I am 100% Jewish. I have no multi anything in my
background. I am a 5th generation American citizen, probably more American
than most of your posters. I am a proud Jewish American and I don't
appreciate being back burnered because you don't even want to pretend you
know a Jew. That's pretty sad. If you couldn't even bother to find one
person that celebrates anything other than Christmas, you need to carefully
review who your posters are, and what you're trying to say to the blogging
world. Because from where I sit, you're saying that you don't belong to the
club if you don't celebrate Christmas, but we'll consider your comments if
you tell us where they are and what they mean. And yes, if you read your
recently moved to SF posters latest blog entries where she belittles and
insults the mezuzah she found on her rented home, you MIGHT get the idea of
why I'm so ticked off. "
Of course, the standard response has been "if you don't like it, don't read
it". No cuplability, no admission of maybe an error on their part, and no
apology for calling me multicultural, which burned my ass no end. As for
the mezuzah comment, I'll post it here, but you can find it here:
http://citymama.typepad.com/citymama/2005/12/history_repeats.html#comments
This is the part that particularly bugged me:
" I know that they care about the environment because they used recycled
aluminum foil. I know they are Jewish because they have little thingies with
Hebrew writing affixed to the door frames of their bedrooms. It looks like
some kind of protective object. Maybe it contains blessings to protect you
while you sleep."
What irks me most is that these people are PAID bloggers. They actually make
money diminishing Judaism and acting superior about who they are and what
they know and don't know. They're all highly educated, but blindingly stupid
about anything outside of their comfort zone, which happenes to be the west
coast from San Francicso up to Seattle.
So, I would apprieciate it very much if you would all answer the lastest
post, shown in it's entirely below:
Balancing Chanukah and Christmas
Posted Jan 2nd 2006 8:41AM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Child Development, Lifestyle
My roommate in business school was Catholic, and her husband was Jewish.
They chose to raise their children to know both faiths, and let them decide
(when they're old enough) which one to "keep." As such, they celebrate both
Chanukah and Christmas. My brother and sister-in-law, similarly, both grew
up Christian and converted to Judaism as adults. They're raising their
daughter Jewish but still celebrate Christmas with the rest of our family.
And I have some Jewish friends who put up trees, even though they don't do
Christmas at all (no stockings, no Santa, and definitely no nativity scene).
I'm overly sensitive about such things so I wince whenever I mention
"Christ" in the presence of my brother and carefully wrap presents for my
niece in snowflake and star paper. We still get them gifts at Christmas - I
just don't call it that. My b-school roommate, though, was lighthearted
about the dichotomy - for a Jewish feast dinner one year, they ate ham. (And
her husband, who'd grown up Jewish, was the family chef.)
If your family is interfaith, or if you're a secular Jew, how do you handle
it? And do you laugh at family members and friends like me who tiptoe around
you during the holidays, always worried they'll say the wrong thing or
accidentally serve nothing but pork for a family holiday dinner (yes, I
actually did this one year)?"
After you're done gagging, please mosey on over to www.bloggingbaby.com and
let them know your feelings on how they portray themselves vis a vis
Judaism. They need to hear it from someone other than me.
TIA!
Marjorie
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