Neil Gaiman Is Innocent: Racial Hoaxes and Antisemitic Tropes
A Major Magazine has helped perpetrate an anti-semitic smear.
In the previous section we saw that online white supremacists were active in disseminating the false allegations against Neil Gaiman to a number of far-right, neo-nazi and antisemitic breeding grounds.
Not only is Neil Gaiman Jewish, he says he writes from an ‘outsider’ perspective informed by his culture and ethnicity, and many of the characters in his work are clearly Jewish or inspired by the stories and legends.
The allegations against come at a time of overall pattern or uptick of persecution along racial hoax lines across the western world. Today these hoaxes leverage both feminist ire on the left and racial hatred on the right - the victim of the racial attack is vulnerable, with seemingly nobody willing to defend them.
About 70% of racial hoaxes are directed at black people and rely on stereotypes and racist fears about Americans of African descent etc. The remaining 30% are split amongst different ethnic demographics. Accusations of a sexual nature are often precursors to racialised attacks, especially on Jewish and African people.
More recently, middle eastern and south Asian people have come under attack, with at least some allegations of ‘grooming gangs’ discovered to be complete fabrications. This is a common factor in the pogroms now sweeping the UK.
HISTORIC EXAMPLES
Sexual fears have long been linked by gentiles towards Jewish people in tropes that extend back further in time than even persecution of Black and Indian people.
The ‘hypersexual Jewish man’ is a common trope which goes back medieaval Europe.
Historical examples of sexual antisemitism:
And what was the reason they gave in court?
It was easy for the gentile court to acquit Lee Green because they found the tale of sexual assault so easy to believe, they too would have defended their lady’'s honour by killing a Jew.
Online antisemitic breeding grounds have several times produced reports of members desiring to kill or harm Neil Gaiman alongside other Jews.
CROSSOVER WITH OTHER FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION
Antisemites are rarely ‘just’ antisemites, they tend to also be anti LGBTQ, against leftism in all its forms. They often use conspiratorial phrases such as ‘the jewish globohomo agenda’. They will tend to be misogynistic, and there may be a gendered dimension to their antisemitic discrimination.
Excerpts from The Conversation:
Unfortunately, it sometimes goes back the other way, and antisemitism can be found even in LGBTQ spaces.
DEPICTION BY VULTURE/NEW YORK MAGAZINE
Once you see it you can’t unsee it.
And also in the promo for Master:
I’m sure analysing Jewish noses like some frenzied eugenicist makes you as uncomfortable as it makes me, but bear with I’m trying to prove an important point.
Some Jewish commentators have claimed the NY Magazine images are doctored, to make them more of a caricature of Ashkenazi features. This is potentially true as other images of Gaiman do not look similar.
This is how Vulture, the same outlet portrayed him in 2015:
A typical antisemitic depiction found in Nazi propaganda typically contains the following:
Dark beady eyes
Large aquiline, hooked nose
Under-eye shadows
Naso-labial folds
Sallow skin
Long or Unruly hair (contrasting to an Aryan’s sharp crew cut)
Swarthy and hairy, middle eastern features emphasised
Hunched appearance
Particular choices have pushed the first image towards the typical anti-semitic depiction.
-The choice of lighting emphasises 1 and 3 as well as giving an overall sinister vibe, making the skin appear more sallow. In most photos his skin is paler, cooler - here he is racially ‘othered’.
-His nose appears distinctly more ‘tropeish’ here.
-His expression. In most photos he has an amused or ‘twinkling’ visage that conveys warmth, openness and a certain fae mysteriousness. Here his expression suggests hiding something, a defensive mask. Again, this is an ‘othering’ choice. There is a distinct ‘caught’ quality. Even when Gaiman is presented as a ‘dark and mysterious figure’ it never has the same quality of weakness and threat that typifies this and anti-semitic depictions overall. We have never seen this before, and presumably these photos are from before the allegations were made.
-His hair is much less groomed. Filters can be applied to make it look coarser.
-He is hunched in this photo - usually such photos would be discarded.
-The plain background gives a sense of austere isolation. He is not in the context of a writer at work or a celebrity at an event.
-In fact, it resembles a police station mugshot. Like this for example.
The Photographer Guerin Blask has other shots of Neil Gaiman, like this one:
This one does appear to be heavily altered.
All of these images by Blask appear to be taken at the same time., 2022 in Woodstock, NY They are all heavily altered, but interestingly they bare no trace of the caricaturing that we see post-allegation, which is either a matter of selection and filtering, if not outright alteration.
Certain choices post-edit as well during the shoot, and which photos are selected, can lead to more ‘trope’ style depictions. For instance a wide angle lens will accentuate a nose, while a telephoto lens will flatten features. Side lighting and downward gaze with accentuate, while bright light and normal profile will portray neutrally.
We were schooled in this sort of thing at length during the run up of the Obama campaign.
DISSEMINATION IN NAZI SPACES
The article NEIL GAIMAN IS INNOCENT: THE NAZI-TERF ALLIANCE has huge amounts of evidence of ongoing anti-semitism against Neil Gaiman that far proceeded the allegations, the proceeded to get a massive boost
We can trace the actions of white supremacists and neo-Nazis such as Jon Del Arroz and Vox Day, who appear to purposefully disseminate apparently left-wing articles amongst antisemitic groups, who go on to re-post, posing all the while as leftists and feminists.
In case you believe I’m being hyperbolic by references to Nazism, these media found their way onto The Daily Stormer and Stormfront, the most prominent Nazi and fascist watering holes on the internet - as well as an array of right wing, fascist, incel and fundamentalist outlets.
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