Introduction:
Renowned economist and author Thomas Sowell provides an original perspective on the roots of anti-Semitism anchored in Jews‘ economic success over history. His contrarian insights reveal uncomfortable truths on the persistence of racial hatred against successful minority groups across time and place.
The Jewish People: A Persecuted Minority Across History
The Jewish people have faced sustained vitriol, discrimination and violence over centuries and across numerous societies far removed from each other – an enduring hatred targeting Jews more extensively than any other cultural, ethnic or religious group.
From Jewish expulsion in medieval times, to Spanish Inquisition, to Russian pogroms, to the Holocaust under Nazi Germany, Jews have repeatedly faced hostility, entire legal exclusion from economic spheres at times, and outright genocide. Just in the 1900s, over 3 million European Jews were systematically exterminated in the Holocaust under Hitler‘s Final Solution.
What explains the persistence of anti-Semitism spanning different eras and societies with little else in common? An analysis of the economic roles Jewish communities came to occupy over European history provides insight.
Jews as "Middleman Minorities"
Sowell notes how Jews in Medieval Europe were legally barred from owning land or entering craft guilds, pushing them out by necessity into marginalized roles as merchants, peddlers, financiers and "middlemen" facilitating trade between remote towns and villages.
Jews proved themselves remarkably successful in these urban merchant and artisanal roles over the centuries – but herein lay the roots of hatred against them argues Sowell – the very visibility of Jews‘ rising economic prosperity bred intense resentment.
Sowell notes similar patterns with middlemen minorities – Chinese in Southeast Asia, Indians under British East Africa, Japanese immigrant farmers in America. But no other group has faced the sheer scale and intensity of resentment as Jews – the most successful middleman minority of all time by Sowell‘s account.
From Resentment to Scapegoating Hatred
Even as they were excluded from medieval feudal structures, Jews‘ unconventional success challenged the status quo, fueling religious bigotry, resentment, conspiracy theories and racial hatred over generations.
Jewish urban prosperity was also very visible to poorer masses in stark contrast to their own poverty – thereby threatening people‘s self-worth suggests Sowell – and feeding classist hatred against these conspicuously successful "outsiders".
Periods of broader societal crises like the Black Death, sectarian conflicts, economic crashes or crop failures through the turbulent Middle Ages saw ruling classes shift mass frustration onto convenient Jewish scapegoats. By directing the rage of the exploited masses onto Jews, elites could continue exploiting the masses argues Sowell in his economic analysis.
Thus for centuries, Jews‘ rising commercial success combined with their minority status to make them ready scapegoats subject to outsized hatred from threatened rulers and masses alike when broader tensions erupted.
The Success Paradox: To Succeed, or To Be Loved?
Sowell takes the controversial view that the successes of Jewish people historically and persisting even amidst persecution, itself accounts for much of the extreme hatred against them.
His thesis breaks from other common hypotheses on origins of anti-Semitism rooted in religious difference, conspiracy theories or innate xenophobia towards groups as "the other”.
Sowell argues that paradoxically, it is the very success of Jews economically that results in cyclical hatred against them the moment crisis hits. Having specialized in well-rewarded but marginalized trades for centuries, the prosperity of Jewish communities itself bred resentment.
As economist, Sowell considers it better to succeed materially – even if envied and resented – than to fail or force oneself to underachieve just to be accepted and loved unconditionally by society.
By this argument, until Jews give up economic success entirely or are exterminated outright as under the Nazis, the cyclic hatred will persist holds Sowell.
The Israel Phenomenon: Resilient Success Breeding Resentment
Sowell extends his economic hypothesis to hostility against the State of Israel today which as the only Jewish nation, encapsulates worldwide Jewish identity.
Israel‘s origins itself stem from the extremity of Jewish persecution over history, culminating in the Holocaust where one-third Jews worldwide were exterminated in systematic genocide. The post-war worlds‘ guilt enabled the carving out of Israel in 1948, as the first Jewish homeland providing safe refuge to the decimated community.
Remarkably Israel transformed within decades from an impoverished developing nation dependent on aid and food imports, to becoming dubbed the "Start-Up Nation” – with the highest density globally of startups, entrepreneurship and venture capital investment.
More iSowell sees echoes of Jews‘ historic prosperity against the odds, in Israel‘s thriving innovation economy and advanced technology exports now powering its strong growth and developed nation status.
Predictably by his thesis however, Israel‘s resilient success after its traumatic genesis has made it the target of disproportionate hatred from Arab neighbors and segments worldwide.
Sowell views contemporary hatred against Israel as fundamentally hatred against Jewish success. As the only Jewish state representing Jewish identity, Israel encapsulates the historical Jewish prosperity feeding resentment as analyzed by Sowell.
The Persistence of Racial Hatred in Fragmented Societies
Stepping beyond Sowell‘s specific insights on Jewish history, his troubling analysis highlights uncomfortable realities that economically well-to-do minorities will persistently face hostility amidst poorer masses – especially in fragmented, unequal societies with weak social contracts.
It calls to mind ongoing racial resentment today against successful immigrant Asian traders or tech entrepreneurs in impoverished African nations for instance, facing periodic waves of brutality and violence.
It echoes also in microcosm within online gaming ecosystems – where skilled gamers and profitable gaming entrepreneurs from minority racial groups or nationalities repeatedly face disturbingly high racism, abuse and harassment from less skilled casual gamers.
In highlighting the paradoxical roots of racial hatred in economic success of minorities, Sowell reveals awkward truths on society‘s inability to embrace diversity by skin color or creed even today.
The Way Forward: Economic Inclusion
Sowell makes the controversial case that the cyclic oppression even genocide of Jews has its origins largely in historical economic success driving resentment.
The uneasy insight from Sowell‘s contrarian stance is that ethnic and religious minorities may continue facing disproportional hatred unless societies structurally address widening inequality. With globalization fracturing national economies and concentrating opportunity, the boiling resentment is unlikely to abate without concerted efforts towards economic inclusion of minorities alongside social inclusion.
There are no easy answers, but in revealing the paradoxical roots of racial hatred in minorities‘ success itself, Sowell pushes societies worldwide – however fragmented – to reflect deeply on building shared prosperity.