“…Armenians and Jews have much in common: small nations with long memories of past glory; centuries of living as minorities among Muslims…”

The accusation of self-hatred has long been used by Jews against other Jews; those critical of Israel’s policies are often branded with the label. And Armenians and Jews have much in common: small nations with long memories of past glory; centuries of living as minorities among Muslims; modern-day homelands that serve as beacons for dispersed peoples. The poet Osip Mandelstam once called Armenians “the younger sister to the Jewish nation.” But the tendency to accuse their own members of self-hatred is a toxic habit that both groups would do well to let go of altogether.

The self-hating label has been deployed by blacks, Mexicans, Indians and Asians too. The idea is that you are embarrassed by your true nature — your ethnic nature — and so you mock it or speak out against it. The label is used not to engage in meaningful criticism, but to dismiss such criticism by chalking it up to shame. And yet the behavior labeled self-hating often reflects the opposite of shame; it reflects confidence.

This is a kind of confidence that, sadly, dispersed nations and minority groups generally have in short supply. Diasporas are, by definition, unstable, even when they seem like tight-knit, cohesive groups. Over time, their members intermarry, their children stop speaking the ancestral language, and eventually the markers of a distinct identity fade.

Meline Toumani, “Armenians Should Not Let Genocide Define Us”, The New York Times (19 April 2015), SR7.