In the tradition of Dr. Franz Fanon and his classic work Black Skin, White Masks (1952), we can think about being-Ashkenazi in terms of the psychic scars suffered from being racialized and living in the world as a remnant.
I also heard from cannabis Jews and allies in the United States who wrote to tell me that the article resonated with them because they, too, are suffering from similar types of racist hate in the American cannabis and psychedelic communities.
If the aim is to empower students to improve the cannabis industry, then we need to teach Philosophy of Cannabis to question and disrupt the reproduction of systemic inequalities that characterize every industry in our late-stage capitalist economy.
Coates refuses to consider what it means to exist as a remnant of our people, violently removed from the world in the European-wide effort to achieve a “final solution” to the problem of Jews—an existential threat to the white race.
The reason we expected more support and empathy from the cannabis community relates to the pivotal role that Israeli Jews have played in the history of cannabis research and advocacy, supported by a culture that values life over politics, guided by the Jewish effort to reduce suffering to repair the world (tikkun olam).
