Intergenerational dialogue and positioning change in dealing with racism: Ethiopian Jews in Israel, thirty years after the immigration

How do immigrant’s children cope with racist hegemonic discourse? To what extent, is their response effective? The article addresses this issue through an exploration of the identity and positioning strategies of children of 100,000 ‘Black Jews’ who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia at the end of the last century. Drawing on the sociology of generations, we show that members of the second generation of Ethiopian immigrants developed a different identity and a contradictory positioning strategy to that of the 1.5 generation, while both failed to reduce racism in Israel. Contrary to Karl Mannheim’s linear theory, we argue that intergenerational encounters produce a new identity and a new positioning strategy that may be effective in creating social change. It was only through massive demonstrations in the year 2015 that intergenerational dialogue was created, leading to a new positioning strategy that proved to be effective in undermining racist hegemonic discourse.