Dear Ivanka Trump,
I’m the proud mother of a three-year-old girl named Nylah. My daughter is confident, playful, expressive. Probably a lot like your daughter Arabella, Nylah loves to read, play with her dollhouse, and play make believe. Her imagination runs wild. There’s currently a zoo in our pantry, a gorilla that lives with us, and a princess castle at the beach we frequently visit. She has several imaginary friends and takes very good care of her “babies.” This imagination allows her to explore her world and it’s a joy to see what she’ll come up with next.
For Nylah, the only glimpse of fear is the occasional “monster” that has to be told to play gently. She does not yet know of the turmoil that exists in the world; a turmoil that has been created by adults for generations. She has no knowledge that some may view her as “different.” She does not yet know that her daddy and uncles are treated differently at routine traffic stops than her friend Tommy’s daddy and uncles. I’m sure your daughter also has limited knowledge of these things. As children, they shouldn’t have to understand, and it’s our job as parents to protect them from the cruelty of the adult world, at least while they’re young.
If my daughter has to play in parks or look at monuments that honor those who would prefer she were enslaved, how is she to feel the freedom and equality you claim to stand for? When you speak about equal pay for women, are you aware that women of color make even less than the 75 cents paid to their white counterparts? Did you know that African American women make a national average of 63 cents on the dollar to their white male counterparts and Latina women make 55 cents on the dollar? Those amounts are even less if you look at individual states.
So when you talk of pay equity, are you speaking up for my daughter? Does she deserve freedom from honoring those who fought to have her enslaved? Does she deserve human decency or is that only reserved for women of a certain race and/or status?
Your silence on the recent events in Charlottesville speaks volumes. Neither you nor your father went to the city in solidarity or to attend the funeral of Heather Heyer.
There’s specific wording this administration uses in an attempt to appease the rest of us while supporting racist and hateful groups. Your ability to fade into the background while he speaks in code and refuses to call out the Alt-Right and White Nationalists is baffling. Your privilege allows you to be safe. It allows you to as you put it, “quietly and candidly disagree” with the President.
As advocates for women, we can no longer afford to quietly disagree. As an advisor to the President, choosing to limit your activism to 140 characters on twitter is a symbol of your complacency and comfort. It’s not enough. People are dying; this is a reality the rest of us live with, for the sake of our families, we do not have the privilege to look away. Our lives are on the line. You have a great opportunity to spearhead a national dialogue. However, your privilege enabled you to ignore the request to meet with several Jewish leaders to lead a national discussion.
The glorification of confederacy that this administration is supporting is unpatriotic and dangerous. When the President says that taking down confederate statues is foolish and wrong and that it’s an attempt to “change our culture” I’m personally offended. As a mother, I’m appalled at the notion that these symbols of oppression should be worshipped.
If it’s too difficult to stand up to your father, perhaps it’s time for you and your husband to resign. If you don’t, we can only assume that you are in agreement with the President. If you cannot speak up for or don’t care about the rights of all women, such as the women who white nationalists and Nazis want to see oppressed or killed, then you need to move along because because the feminist movement is not a movement of discrimination. The feminist movement is either intersectional or it is null and void.
As the events in Charlottesville have shown, there is a limit to the comfort that white privilege can provide when you are actually Jewish. I’m both Black and Jewish. My father was a Russian Polish Jew who grew up in Queens, NY and was proud of his Jewish ancestry and the struggles his people overcame. My mother is African American and from New Orleans and her ancestors were some of the incredibly strong people who survived slavery. Therefore, I have no tolerance for bigotry and injustice, but I have even less tolerance for those who claim to stand for justice, except at times when standing would be inconvenient for their comfort and privilege.
As a woman—a black woman, a Jewish woman, and most of all as a fellow mother of a precious little daughter—I urge you, Ivanka, to speak up in no uncertain terms against the racist and anti-Semitic sentiments being supported by your father.
You cannot take on being Jewish without wearing the historical burden that being Jewish entails. Converting to Judaism is not enough if you do not understand the thousands of years of oppression that Jews have had to overcome.
Just a reminder: you’ll have to look your Jewish children in the face in a decade when they ask where you stood at this time in history when hate-filled Nazis were terrorizing and murdering people in the street. You can lie to them and say you did all you could, or you can tell them the truth and let them know that you stood on the sidelines. If you think that either option will make them feel good about themselves as Jewish children, you’re are sadly mistaken. In spite of what your father thinks, we both know there are no “fine people” who would march with those whose very motive is to see both your daughter and mine dominated by those who consider themselves superior.
I sincerely hope you’ll find the courage to speak up for your Jewish family’s right to exist as well as the rights of ALL Jewish, Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, Muslim, LGBTQ, Disabled and Non-White families to live and strive in a country they love and a country that recognizes that all cultures, all religions, and all people contribute to its greatness. You’ve injected yourself into our American political system. You’re currently in the West Wing of the people’s house. You and your husband are both advisors to the President with high-level security clearance.
You are no longer allowed to stand by on your platform and ignore the vile hate and violence that your father encourages, a hate that’s been lurking in this country since inception. Your children are Jewish. Neither your daughter or mine deserves to grow up in a society that devalues their existence for any reason.
Best Wishes,
Jazz
Jazz Smollett-Warwell is an actress and producer
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