Antisemitism and the White Supremacist Imaginary: Conflations and Contradictions in Composition and Rhetoric

In Antisemitism and the White Supremacist Imaginary: Conflations and Contradictions in Composition and Rhetoric, Mara Lee Grayson calls attention to the complicity of academic institutions and the discipline(s) of rhetoric, composition, and writing studies in the simultaneous perpetuation and denial of anti-Jewish racism. Despite the persistence of antisemitism and Christian hegemony in the United States and its academic institutions, and despite a growing body of antiracist and anti-oppressive scholarship, antisemitism remains largely unaddressed in disciplinary scholarship, curricula, and pedagogy. This book seeks to (begin to) fill that gap by exploring how the rhetoric through which Jewish identity is conceptualized and weaponized by the white supremacist imaginary essentializes Jewish identities and obscures the racist aims and character of antisemitism. Through rhetorical analysis, historical context, and personal narrative, and drawing upon original phenomenological research, Grayson highlights how deeply embedded antisemitic ideologies impact the lived experiences of Jewish teachers, students, and scholars, and perpetuate white supremacy. This book addresses concerns both experiential and rhetorical, illuminates the rhetorical, historical, political, and racial dynamics of antisemitism, and exposes the limitations of existing discourses of whiteness and (anti)racism. This book gestures toward a future in which, through a more nuanced and productive discourse, we can better support Jewish educators and students and engage Jewish members of the discipline as better accomplices in antiracism.