One thought on “The alternative to JOC-slapping”

1. Thanks, Aliza, for posting these videos that made me laugh about treatment that I have experienced that has more typically left me with rather negative feelings.

   I have been in the situation described in the JOC-slapping video: shopping at an rabbinically supervised supermarket on a Friday or before a holiday and having the cashier not say “Shabbat Shalom” or “Chag Sameach” to me as she did to the other customers, I assume because she doesn't expect me to be Jewish since I'm also Chinese. I know that the cashiers are not trying to insult me, but it is still hurtful.

   It makes me sad not to get an appropriate expression of good wishes given that I am often wished an inappropriate “Merry Christmas”. My husband replies to white store clerks wishing him a Merry Christmas, “And Happy Kwanzaa to you”.

   I suppose it is also a bit sad that I'm *grateful* when the staff at a local Judaica store do offer me the appropriate Jewish wishes. (Why shouldn't I expect to be treated the same as the other customers?) I think that the difference between the two stores may be connected with the fact that the staff at the Judaica store are observant Jews, whereas the cashiers at the kosher supermarket are typically non-Jewish Mexicans or non-observant immigrants from the FSU who may not know about the various ways that one could be a Jew of Color such as conversion or adoption (which is really another type of conversion, of course) or simply not being a white Ashkenzi Jew.

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