Read on Twitter
“We’re sorry that the stuff Dad said hurt you, I mean, we thought he was awesome and it’s so weird to us that he thought Hitler had the right idea, because his values were overall great” isn’t the nuanced reckoning you think it is, y’all. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/06/roald-dahl-family-apologises-for-his-antisemitism
I tend to feel irritable about people making scads of money off someone’s work and writing a hasty PR statement and being like, “so we’re cool now!”
Could start with thinking about how much $$ to donate & to whom.
Could start with thinking about how much $$ to donate & to whom.
A better example of what a thing could look like. The Krispy Kreme family “hired a history professor in 2014 to investigate the Nazi ties after finding documents belonging to Reimann Sr.” As soon as they found questions, they ACTIVELY investigated to discern the truth+
Rather than just, like, hoping it wouldn’t come out and doing damage control if it did. And when they found out, they donated some real $ to survivors. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/krispy-kreme-panera-bread-owner-give-5m-holocaust-survivors-over-n1099881
And note the language used by the family here. Not, “this is so confusing because Dad was awesome to us!!” But rather:
"We were ashamed," he said. "These crimes are disgusting."
"We were ashamed," he said. "These crimes are disgusting."
We can have the conversation about whether it was enough money or etc but what I see with the Krispy Kreme people is a willingness to do the work. An active engagement with what really happened. Not hoping a quick PR paragraph will do the job so they can go back to cashing in+
Without worrying about enthusiasm for their doing that being tainted by people caring about, you know, whether or not Dahl was a raging, unrepentant antisemite.
Yep. It’s about checking a box, not repairing harm. https://twitter.com/vogelbeere/status/1335612501719994369
People keep saying this so I will add here: Dahl’s family is continuing to profit off his work, his views, his perspective. His antisemitism was not some hidden secret, it’s been known and public for decades. If they would like to benefit from him, they have a responsibility. https://twitter.com/ummlaura/status/1335691214428000259
They are literally making money off his problematic work now.
Their remarks smell like (granted I don’t know for sure), “don’t cancel us, we apologized, keep loving his stuff for our benefit.” https://nerdist.com/article/looking-back-on-the-anti-semitism-in-roald-dahls-the-witches/
Their remarks smell like (granted I don’t know for sure), “don’t cancel us, we apologized, keep loving his stuff for our benefit.” https://nerdist.com/article/looking-back-on-the-anti-semitism-in-roald-dahls-the-witches/
They did not engage the Jewish community, they have not done repair work, they are—whatever the motivation, tbh I don’t really care—not actively repairing harm. They are, as @onthemainline just put it, not apologizing TO Jews so much as FOR Dahl.
