Jews Don't Count

Forrest felt a need to read Jews Don't Count and I likely wouldn't have picked this up had he not implored me to read it for myself. I have to hold my hand up and say that I've never given anti-Semitism a lot of thought before this—for example, never really 'getting' what the issue was around the accusations against Jeremy Corbyn, which resulted in his recent suspension from the Labour Party. His blindness, and my own, is exactly what this riveting essay is all about. David Baddiel explains how anti-Semitism goes under the radar as an inferior kind of racism to every other kind of minority ism, such that Jews have indeed not been counted.

Offsetting high power polemic with just enough humour to keep the touch light, the author's reasoning is not just incredibly persuasive but inarguable. I could almost feel my brain being rewired as I read. I think that says much about how we all harbour unconscious prejudices due to our inherited culture and language. Perhaps the most important message of this book is that we should always be open to question the core assumptions that underpin our views and our values. We should always be open to the possibility of being wrong. More than anything else, that's what I'm taking away from this.

I will add the words of Caitlin Moran to those of Forrest's, "you have to read this."