SPEW :: the world playground

created: September 12, 2001

the arab kid, the jewish kid, the american kid

This can be seen in the analogy of a schoolyard scuffle. There’s this little Jewish kid that keeps getting bullied & beaten up by the Arab kids because this little Jewish kid wants “something” all to themselves. They keep trying and never getting it. They gain the trust and the strong-arm friendship of the big American kid. The American kid makes it really happen for the Jewish kid. Like a bodyguard, the American kid pushes the Arab kids out of the way and lets the Jewish kid have this “something” all to themselves. The Arab kids are clearly no match for the American kid in regards for this “something” the still covet so much. However, the Arabs continue to deal with the American kid, trading things, and generally being civil while publicly making statements about their hatred of the American kid in regard to the Jewish kid.

The Jewish kid is not the exclusive recipient of the American kids strength and reverse bullying. There are plenty of other kids on the playground that either rely on the American kid to get what they need, or allow the American kid to take what he wants. The American kid is simply too strong to resist. Better to ally with so great a presence then to resist. And this ends up breeding this seething hatred towards the American kid. He is perceived as the policeman of the playground. Talking peace between some one moment and then bullying and oppressing others the next. Yet always talking civility and peace.

So while the American kid continues to aide, protect & support the Jewish kid, the Jewish kid becomes this truly strong entity. The Jewish kid has dealt with a lot of shit in the past – horrible things – never to be forgotten. These things have only made the Jewish kid stronger. So much so that every time the Arab kids make an attempt at the Jewish kid or the “something,” the American kid only tends to break up the fights now. The Jewish kid is holding his own. The Jewish kid even goes so far as to make simple offerings to the Arab kids to use the “something.” Yet the Arab kids rightfully begin to rise up and say “wait, this is ours in the first place. It has always been ours. And Jewish kid, the only reason why you have it now is because you and that American kid took it from us.” Eventually, this leads to the Arab kids to the wrong approach by taking potshots at the Jewish kid, soliciting the assistance of Arab kids from different playgrounds, and generally making the Jewish kid hold the “something” even tighter. Every day that goes by, the Jewish kid grows more & bolder with their possession. They say that the Arab kids are wrong when they say that the “something” originally belongs to them. That the Arab kids are simply never going to get it back. But the Arab kids, they want this “something” so bad that it just consumes them. They’re simply bitter to the core about how they cannot have this “something” and the only reason they cannot is because they don’t have the power to take it back. It gets to the point where some of the other American kids no longer care to protect the Jewish kid. Not because he can take care of himself, but rather their good-natured peacekeeping measure of intervening between the Arabs & the Jewish kid in the first place was no longer such a wise decision. That, the American kid should have never gotten involved in the first place. The Arab kids couldn’t agree more. To be sure, there are plenty of other kids on the playground that support the American kid no matter what he does, even in regards to the Jewish kid. But for the most part, in the eyes of the Arab kids, the Jewish kid and the American kid are alone in the protection & support of this “something.” The Arab kids are growing tired of the current situation of repression & denial. They know that they can never actually rise up and take the “something” because there is clearly no way that they’ll ever be able to hold onto it. The American kid is too strong and the Jewish kid has far too tight a hold on it. They’ve tried calmly talking to the Jewish kid, as well as with the Americans. The American kid has repeatedly expressed to the Jewish kid that they might want to think about sharing the “something.” And to a certain degree, they have. They’ve allows the Arab kids to sit next to it, to look at it, and to generally have the sense that they have the “something” back. But not without heavy sacrifices. The Jewish kid is very possessive, honestly believing in their hearts that the “something” is rightfully theirs. They never let the Arab kids forget that the “something” is theirs, and that the Arab kids will never fully get it back. So while the day-to-day activities on the playground are sometimes free from scuffles, the tension between the Arab kids and the Jewish kid is always there, and the American kid is never too far away from either of them, either to break up a fight with calls for civil conversation, or roughing up some other Arab kids who feel they’ve got the right idea by talking & getting violent about their quest for the “something.” There are good days and there are bad days. Some days, the Arab kids will be horrendously cruel in their attempts to get the “something” back or to hurt the Jewish kid. Other days, the Jewish kid will be equally cruel in taunting the Arab kid with the “something”, pushing the Arab kids away from the “something” when all they want to do is just “be” next to it.

All they can do now is to plan how they can eventually get the “something” back. And if they cannot get the “something” back, well… at least they can continue to send messages to the Jewish & the American kid. Messages that they are serious. On day, after a period of some unrest between the Jewish kid and the Arabs, something happens. Something massive to the American kid. The American kid gets knocked down in a hard, disturbing way. The American kid is stunned. The American kid is knocked so off-balance that he doesn’t know how to digest what has happened let alone process what to do next. Immediately, the American kid is thinking simultaneously about a multitude of things. How to retaliate is one of the initial emotions. The American kid is so used to being the strongest most feared kid on the playground that they cannot avoid these feelings of retaliation and snap judgments. And that finger pointing is as initial as anything else. They are simply so damn sure that this was the work of the Arab kids, or at least some small portion of them.